Ranji Trophy: Dhawal Kulkarni ends his career on a high
What's the story
Veteran cricketer Dhawal Kulkarni signed off in style from the sport. The Mumbai pacer had a dream end to his career, helping his side win the 2024 Ranji Trophy title on Thursday.
Mumbai beat Vidarbha by 169 runs with Kulkarni taking the final wicket to end Vidarbha's resolve.
Notably, Kulkarni played this match after Mohit Avasthi missed out. Here we decode Kulkarni's stats.
Performance
Kulkarni took four wickets in his final match
Kulkarni took 3/15 from 11 overs in Vidarbha's first innings. He claimed the key scalps of Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade and Karun Nair respectively.
His brilliance helped Mumbai reduce Vidarbha to 39/4 in the 18th over. Notably, Vidarbha finished on 105 after Mumbai scored 224.
Chasing 538, Vidarbha in the fourth innings scored 368/10. Kulkarni (1/38) took the wicket of Umesh Yadav.
FC
Five Ranji titles for Kulkarni
Mumbai have won five Ranji Trophy honors, with Kulkarni playing in the final.
As per Sportstar, in four of his first finals, Kulkarni claimed three five-wicket hauls and smashed a match-turning 87 against Karnataka in 2009-10.
As per ESPNcricinfo, having debuted for Mumbai in 2007, Kulkarni leaves after representing the team in 208 matches across formats.
Stats
281 FC scalps from 95 matches
Kulkarni finished his career with 95 First-Class matches. He claimed 281 scalps at an average of 27.31.
He managed to claim nine four-wicket hauls and 15 five-wicket hauls with a best showing of 7/50.
He played four matches in the Ranji 2024 season. He played against Andhra, Kerala, Bengal and Vidarbha.
Kulkarni claimed a total of 11 wickets.
Numbers
His stats across List A and T20 formats
Kulkarni managed 223 scalps from 130 matches in List A cricket. He averaged 22.13, taking five five-wicket hauls with a best of 5/29.
12 of his matches were for the Indian cricket team in ODIs. He claimed 19 scalps at 26.73.
In the T20s, Kulkarni took 154 scalps from 162 matches at 27.99.
In two T20I matches for India, he claimed three wickets.