Of the three Ranji Trophy finals I played in, the 1984-85 one at the Wankhede Stadium is most memorable for me. Our opponents were the spiky Delhi team led by S Madan Lal, while Bombay were led by Sunil Gavaskar. The vital first innings lead was conceded but if there was ever an example that a Ranji final is not about the first innings lead, it was this one.

Enduring a 65-run deficit, Bombay declared their second innings at 364 for seven to set Delhi a target of 300. Chetan Chauhan and Manoj Prabhakar put on 95 for the first wicket and that turned out to be the most productive partnership of the innings because Ravi Shastri bowled a tsunami-like spell of eight for 91 and bundled Delhi out for 209.