Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26: Sarfaraz century keeps Mumbai’s winning run intact

As Sarfaraz Khan brought up his century with a straight six, he took off his helmet, raised his bat and an animated celebration followed. Having brought up his third List A century in just 56 balls, the seasoned batter extended his stay further and scored a daddy hundred (157, 75b, 9×4, 14×6) to help Mumbai put up a mammoth 444 for eight and eventually register a 87-run win against Goa.

As the surface eased out at the Jaipuria Vidyalaya ground on Wednesday, Sarfaraz made the most of the conditions and took the Goa bowlers to the cleaners, and paved the way for his team’s fourth successive win in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Coming on the back of three consecutive victories, Goa opted to bowl, and managed to remove opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi early on, before the Yashasvi Jaiswal and Musheer Khan rebuilt with a 70-run stand for the second wicket.

Returning to the squad after recovering from acute gastroenteritis, Jaiswal took his time to assess the conditions and looked set to score a fifty, but fell four runs short. He was caught in the covers by Snehal Kauthankar off a Darshan Misal delivery.

However, with Musheer and Sarfaraz around, Mumbai did not lose the plot as they added 93 runs for the third wicket, before the latter made optimum use of Goa’s sloppy fielding and flexed his muscles.

With the surface offering nothing to the bowlers, Mumbai captain Shardul Thakur scored 26 runs in Shubham Tari’s over. Sarfaraz faced 46 deliveries from left-arm spinner Misal and off-spinner Lalit Yadav to score 104 runs against the duo. Though Sarfaraz fell shortly after breaching the 150-run mark, Mumbai managed to post its second-highest total in List A cricket, riding on Hardik Tamore’s quick fire 28-ball 53, and Tanush Kotian’s unbeaten 12-ball-23.

It was an herculean task for Goa after openers Arjun Tendulkar and Kashyap Bakle failed to convert starts. However, Abhinav Tejrana put up a fight with a gritty 70-ball-100 and added 117 runs for the fifth wicket with Lalit, before Jaiswal sent the former packing. Captain Deepraj Gaonkar delayed the inevitable with a 28-ball-70, but Goa eventually ran out of steam.

Published on Dec 31, 2025