Rajat Patidar stamped his class with an authoritative century, putting Madhya Pradesh on the cusp of their historic Ranji Trophy triumph against Mumbai on a rain-hit fourth day of the final at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Showers started minutes before tea. Madhya Pradesh ended their first innings at 536 soon after resumption with a massive lead of 162 runs, courtesy Patidar’s 122 comprising 20 boundaries. Four centuries have been scored by batsmen from either side, but none oozed more class and competence than that of Patidar.

At stumps on Saturday, Mumbai erased some of the deficit, reaching 113 for 2.

With 95 overs left on the final day, there’s very little chance of Mumbai winning this final unless they score around 200 more runs within the first 30 overs on Sunday and set Madhya Pradesh a tricky target of 150-200 in some 50 overs or so to get all the 10 wickets.

Brief scores: Mumbai 374 & 113/2 (P. Shaw 44). Madhya Pradesh 536 (R. Patidar 122). Stumps, Day IV.

PTI