Ranji Trophy final: Mumbai eye 41st title against Saurashtra

New Delhi: Mighty Mumbai are all set to lock horns with Saurashtra in the summit clash of Ranji Trophy, starting from Wednesday at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.

Interestingly, where young Mumbai team will be eyeing its 41st title in the history of the tournament, Jaydev Shah-led Saurashtra will look to create history by winning their maiden Ranji title.

For Mumbai it will be their 45th final, while, for Saurashtra it's only the second time that they have reached this far in domestic cricket's biggest tourney.

In fact, it was Mumbai who shattered Saurashtra's hopes of a maiden triumph in season 2012-13, when they beat latter by an innings and 125 runs and finished the summit clash in mere three days.

Though, revenge would be on the minds of Saurashtra players, they will have to hit the ground running from the word go to upset a side which has almost won more titles than the rest of India combined.

Records are also in favour of Mumbai, as since 1990-91 they haven't lost any of the 10 finals they have played.

Under the captaincy of Aditya Tare, Mumbai are certainly the favourites to win the final.

As far as batting is concerned, Saurashtra side will depend heavily on Sheldon Jackson, Cheteshwar Pujara, Jaydev Shah and Sagar Jogiyani.

On the other hand, Mumbai have Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav, Akhil Herwadkar in their ranks apart from Tare.

But Saurashtra bowling line up, which includes Jaydev Unadkat (36 wickets), Kamlesh Makvana and Dharmendra, might ask tough questions in the finals.

One thing is sure that it's going to be a cracker of a match.