On a spiteful Wankhede Stadium strip, batsmen struggled to find their feet and the seamers choked the supply of runs with incisive spells, supported by top-class catching in the slips.
After being shot out for 134 in five hours, Tamil Nadu hit back in the last session with Murali Vijay and Baba Indrajith showing a clear pair of eyes and safe pair of hands to rock the Karnataka top order.
All action happened though after K.L. Rahul retired to the dressing room, unable to bear the pain caused by a hamstring-related injury he suffered while fielding. He departed after the fourth ball of the fourth over and soon Lakshmipathy Balaji stopped the free-flowing innings of Ravikumar Samarth.
The right-hander was probably trying to withdraw his bat, but the ball had taken the edge and travelled fast to the right of Vijay at second slip.
The regular fall of wickets forced Karnataka to send a night-watchman in Abhimanyu Mithun when ten minutes of play of the extended time was left; and the well-built fast bowler’s three boundary shots enabled his side close the action-packed first day at 45 for four.
Trigger
A first victim was just the trigger needed for Tamil Nadu to bowl with its tail up and on this count the seasoned campaigner in Balaji rose to the occasion accounting for the dismissals of Samarth, Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey.
Rahul, while ambling for a single, signalled to the team physio that he needed help to alleviate the hamstring pain. Once he decided to leave the field, Tamil Nadu made the most of a nervous Bhavane, who fell to the second ball he faced. Uthappa’s tenure in the middle for 11 minutes and six balls was uneventful.
Balaji removed the highest run-getter of the season for a duck by inducing an outside edge that went to Indrajith at third slip.
Manish Pandey and Karun Nair seemed to have taken control of the game before Balaji, sending an opening burst of seven overs, forced a leading edge from Pandey for Baba Aparajith to take an easy catch.
Vinay in 300-club
The opening day’s play appeared to have been dominated by Karnataka’s seamers with captain R. Vinay Kumar showing the way with a five-wicket haul and crossing the 300-wicket mark in the Ranji Trophy.
The 31-year old is a shining example of a dyed-in-the-wool cricketer in India’s domestic tournaments. He has plied his trade with the new and old ball to optimum efficiency levels for ten summers, delivering some memorable wins for his team, including a handful of titles last year. He has not allowed captaincy to come in the way of his bowling responsibilities and in defence of the title, he picked a fourth seamer in H.S. Sharath and in a matter of time after winning the toss, he had Tamil Nadu down on its knees.
There was a doubtful decision that went against Dinesh Karthik, but majority of the batsmen consumed time without rotating the strike.
Skipper Abhinav Mukund spent four minutes short of three and half hours before not offering a shot to see the ball hit the stumps.
The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: Abhinav Mukund b Vinay Kumar 35, M. Vijay lbw b Vinay Kumar 5, B. Aparajith b Vinay Kumar 1, D. Karthik c Uthappa b Sharath 11, Vijay Shankar lbw b Vinay Kumar 5, R. Prasanna c Uthappa b Aravind 6, B. Indrajith c Gopal b Mithun 27, Malolan c Uthappa b Mithun 11, Aswin Crist c Uthappa b Vinay Kumar 21, L. Balaji c Bhavane b Mithun 9, Prasanth Parameswaran (not out) 0; Extras (lb-2,w-1): 3, Total (in 62.4 overs): 134.
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-21, 3-34, 4-49, 5-63, 6-69, 7-100, 8-105, 9-123.
Karnataka bowling: Vinay Kumar 15.4-6-34-5, Mithun 16-4-54-3, Sharath 15-6-17-1, S. Aravind 14-6-20-1, S. Gopal 2-0-7-0.
Karnataka — 1st innings: R. Samarth c Vijay b Balaji 14, K.L. Rahul (retd. hurt) 1, S. Bhavane c Indrajith b Parameswaran 0, R. Uthappa c Indrajith b Balaji 0, M. Pandey c Aparajith b Balaji 6, K. Nair batting 9, A. Mithun batting 14; Extras (nb-1): 1, Total (for four wkts. in 14 overs): 45.
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-16, 3-16, 4-31.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Prasanth Parameswaran 5-1-22-1, Balaji 7-2-10-3, Aswin Crist 2-0-13-0.
