Mumbai Cricket Team Vs Bihar Cricket Team Match Scorecard: Even before the betters clicked on the Ranji Trophy season 2023-24, the match between last season’s Plate Group winners Bihar and 41-time champions Mumbai starting on the morning of January 5 at Moin-Ul-Haq Stadium saw enough drama. So Bihar had two teams at the gates of the stadium with team sheets in hand, both with a completely different, fully distinguished set of players in the squad. According to Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) President Rakesh Tiwary and Amit Kumar, who claims to be BCA’s Secretary, one team was cleared by the Association, and another was approved. Bihar has the choice to field Won By 9 Wickets.
Match Info
Match: BIH vs MUM, Elite Group B, Ranji Trophy 2023-24
Date: Friday, January 05, 2024 – Monday, January 08, 2024
Toss: Bihar won the toss and opted to bowl
Time: 9:00 am
Venue: Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, Patna
Umpires: P Jayapal, Rajeev Godara
Match Referee: Arjan Kripal Singh
Bihar Squad
Playing: Ashutosh Aman (c), Veer Pratap Singh, Babul Kumar, Bipin Saurabh (wk), Akash Raj, Sachin Kumar, Sakibul Gani, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Sharman Nigrodh, Himanshu Singh, Nawaz Khan
Bench: Vipul Krishna, Rishav Raj, Baljeet Singh Binny, Ravi Shankar
Mumbai Squad
Playing: Jay Gokul Bista, Bhupen Lalwani, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Suved Parkar, Shams Mulani (c), Prasad Pawar (wk), Royston Dias, Atharva Ankolekar, Tanush Kotian, Mohit Avasthi.
Bench: Ajinkya Rahane, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni, Hardik Tamore
Which team played the match?
Eventually, at 11 am, after nearly one and a half hours were lost because of the chaos, the team, with the signature of BCA President Tiwary, entered the ground, and the match could start. The team with Amit Kumar’s signature on the team sheet was driven out of the Moin-Ul-Haq complex.
How were the two teams selected?
Amit Kumar, claiming to be Secretary, was suspended from his post on January 2, 2023. However, he continues to claim that he was wrongfully removed from his post. Thus, as Secretary, his job was to select teams, which he did.
‘I won the election, and I am the official Secretary of the BCA. You can’t suspend a secretary. Secondly, how can a president select a team? So have you ever seen BCCI president Roger Binny announcing the squad? You will always see the signature of Secretary Jay Shah,’ Kumar, who was quoted as questioning by IndianExpress.
How is Bihar playing Mumbai?
Bihar qualified for the Elite group for the first time in the Ranji Trophy after having played in the Plate Group for the 2018-19, 2019-20, 2021-22, and 2022-23 seasons. They won the final of the Plate Group in the 2022-23 season by beating Manipur and moved to the Elite Group for the first time since 2003-04. Therefore, in the match, after bowling Mumbai out for 251. Bihar were six wickets down when bad light stopped play on Day 2.