Tamil Nadu handed Mumbai its first Ranji Trophy innings defeat in more than six decades as it registered a thumping innings and 44-run victory on day three of the Group ‘A’ match here on Friday.
The win takes the home side to the threshold of the knockout stage with 23 points from seven games even as it leaves the 40-time champions tottering on 11 from six.
The visitors, needing to bat out two full days to survive, started cautiously. As little as 21 runs were scored in the first 15 overs for the loss of Wasim Jaffer. The pressure soon began to tell.
Shreyas Iyer gave Tamil Nadu its first chance when, in an attempt to up the rate, he lofted Suresh Kumar straight to Rahil Shah at deep midwicket only for the catch to be dropped. From there on Shreyas went onto score his second fifty of the match (52, 105b, 7x4), and, along with Aditya Tare, stitched together an 84-run stand.
But the introduction of M. Vijay half an hour before lunch worked as he dismissed both Tare and Shreyas through close in the catches. The latter’s was, in particular, a fortunate wicket as the ball ricocheted off the short-leg fielder to be caught by Sathish at backward short leg.
‘More revolutions on the ball’ “It was a mix of luck and some thought,” said Abhinav later of the decision to introduce Vijay. “Before the game we saw that Vijay was bowling well. He bowls a little quicker and gets more revolutions on the ball. That helped on this wicket. Also the batsmen would have relaxed a bit.”
Then, captain Suryakumar Yadav (65, 144b, 9x4), curbing all his attacking instincts, and Siddesh Lad got together for a promising 74-run partnership before that stand was also broken by another occasional, Sathish.
From then, the victory was a matter of when than if, and Tamil Nadu hastened the process through some excellent catching.
Sathish completed a fine one-handed effort at backward short-leg to get Sarfaraz Khan, and then Vijay Shankar held a spectacular catch, also one-handed, running backwards from mid-off to dismiss Iqbal Abdullah.
Abhinav attributed his team’s emphatic victory over Mumbai to better application and more patience. “We were positive from the word go,” he said. “The wicket was tough. We applied ourselves well, displayed better skills and were more patient.
“It is just another game. I guess it will be between us and Baroda for the second spot. So, it will be good to finish second and play the third team in the other group.”
The scores:
Mumbai — 1st innings: 141
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 417
Mumbai — 2nd innings: Aditya Tare c Sathish b Vijay 36, Akhil Herwadkar c Indrajith b Shah 4, Wasim Jaffer c Indrajith b Malolan 3, Shreyas Iyer c Sathish b Vijay 52, Suryakumar Yadav c Karthik b Aushik 65, Siddesh Lad lbw b Sathish 42, Sarfaraz Khan c sub b Shah 3, Iqbal Abdullah c Vijay Shankar b Aushik 7, Akshay Girap c Vijay b Aushik 8, Vishal Dabholkar (not out) 0, Extras (b-11, nb-1) 12; Total (in 102.5 overs) 232.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-13, 3-97, 4-100, 5-175, 6-197, 7-208, 8-219, 9-232.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Rahil Shah 28-10-48-2, Vijay Shankar 5-2-7-0, S. Suresh Kumar 21-7-54-1, M. Vijay 10-1-33-2, Malolan 25-11-43-1, Aushik Srinivas 11.5-4-27-3, R. Sathish 2-0-9-1.
Points: TN 7 (23), Mumbai 0 (11) .
