While referring to his team’s tactics in the field, Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund had said after the third day’s play that the team had effectively played “boring cricket throughout the season”.
Before the start of the penultimate day’s proceedings of the Ranji Trophy semifinals against Mumbai, Abhinav and his batting unit knew very well that it just couldn’t afford to be boring if it had to keep the match and the team’s title hunt alive.
The batsmen executed the plans to perfection as Abhinav and B. Indrajith scored entertaining hundreds to help Tamil Nadu set Mumbai a dicey target of 251 for victory.
Onslaught
Such was the TN onslaught that it could declare the innings at 356 for six in 78 overs, thus making the Mumbai openers bat for an uneasy passage of 20-odd minutes, which Praful Waghela and debutant Prithvi Shaw eventually survived.
Tamil Nadu, having conceded a 101-run first innings lead — revised to 106 after the team had been penalised five runs for running on the danger area while batting in the second innings — had to come back hard in the second innings.
Once Abhinav and his partner, debutant V. Ganga Sridhar Raju, got their eye in, the two attempted to up the ante. But Raju was plumb in front after missing a straight one from Balwinder Singh Sandhu Jr. and Indrajith was promoted ahead of M. Kaushik Gandhi.
The stylish right-hander didn’t take long to settle and kept the scoreboard moving in the company of his captain. Even before lunch, the duo had wiped off the deficit and had its eyes set on increasing the scoring rate.
With Mumbai opting to take the defensive route too early, Abhinav and Indrajith had plenty of gaps and could easily milk the bowling.
To add to that, the Mumbai bowlers failed to bowl to their fields, thus handing too many loose balls on a wicket that has marginally worn off with a solitary day’s play remaining. That gave ample opportunity for both the batsmen to display their prowess with flicks, drives, punches and sweeps.
While Indrajith played a flawless innings, Abhinav received reprieves on 70 off left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil’s successive deliveries.
While Aditya Tare failed to collect the ball after the TN captain stepped out, Gohil missed a return catch after the ball had risen from the rough created at the pavilion end.
Once the 185-run partnership ended, with Abhinav edging off-spinner Akshay Girap to Shaw in the slips, Dinesh Karthik played a cameo, which was overshadowed by the umpires reprimanding him for running on the danger area. After Karthik’s dismissal, the umpires ran out of patience and penalised Tamil Nadu with five runs when they found Vijay Shankar to be intentionally running on the pitch.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 305.
Mumbai — 1st innings: 411.
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: V. Ganga Sridhar Raju lbw b Sandhu Jr. 28, Abhinav Mukund c Shaw b Girap 122, B. Indrajith c Lad b Shardul 138, Dinesh Karthik c Shaw b Sandhu Jr. 24, Vijay Shankar c & b Gohil 24, Kaushik Gandhi (not out) 9, B. Aparajith st. Tare b Gohil 2; Extras (lb-3, nb-3, w-3): 9; Total (for six wkts. decl. in 78 overs): 356.
Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-249, 3-283, 4-330, 5-347, 6-356.
Mumbai bowling: Shardul Thakur 13-0-60-1, Balwinder Singh Sandhu Jr. 15-1-67-2, Abhishek Nayar 7-1-32-0, Akshay Girap 16-2-69-1, Vijay Gohil 21-0-102-2, Siddhesh Lad 5-0-19-0, Prithvi Shaw 1-0-4-0.
Mumbai — 2nd innings: Prithvi Shaw (batting) 2, Praful Waghela (batting) 3; Total (for no loss in 5 overs): 5.
Tamil Nadu bowling: R. Aushik Srinivas 3-3-0-0, T. Natarajan 1-1-0-0, B. Aparajith 1-0-5-0 .
