The writing was on the wall after Mumbai’s lower-order onslaught on day two. It turned out to be a manic Monday for Tamil Nadu as the hosts completed a thumping innings and 70-run win against their familiar foe to book a berth in the Ranji Trophy final for the 48th time.
Forty-nine minutes after tea on day three at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy ground, Shreyas Iyer — who had dropped a sitter off the first ball of Tamil Nadu’s second innings — caught a miscued heave off Sandeep Warrier’s blade to give Shams Mulani his fourth wicket to bring an end to the visitors’ innings.
Tamil Nadu was bundled out for 162 in a little over two sessions for the second time in three days.
At the start of the day, with a lead of 207 runs and Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande having added more than 60 runs for the last wicket, Tamil Nadu hoped to wind up the Mumbai innings as quickly as possible.
While Deshpande flicked Sandeep Warrier for a four early on, Tanush’s wrist-work against Kuldeep Sen was a treat.
Just when Kotian was nearing a rare milestone of a No. 10 scoring two hundreds in succession, Sai Sudharshan lunged forward to pouch an excellent catch off Washington Sundar to dismiss Deshpande.
Kotian was stranded on 89 (126b, 12x4) as Mumbai ended its first essay at 378.
Thanks to the last three wickets adding 272 runs, Mumbai finished with a lead of 232.
Shardul Thakur and Mohit Avasthi then got into action right away as the Tamil Nadu top-order collapsed yet again.
Sai Sudharsan (caught behind) and N. Jagadeesan (played across to be leg-before) were dismissed by Shardul while Washington, promoted to No. 3, poked at one from Avasthi to get wicketkeeper Hardik Tamore into action again.
Tamore then accepted an edge to end Indrajith’s (70, 105b, 9x4) impressive knock. When Vijay Shankar was stumped off Shams Mulani, it gave Tamore his fifth victim with the gloves and ended all of TN’s hopes of making Mumbai bat again.
The last five wickets fell for only nine runs to give the Mumbai spin duo of Mulani and Kotian a booster ahead of the final.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 146.
Mumbai — 1st innings: Prithvi Shaw c Indrajith b Kuldeep Sen 5, Bhupen Lalwani lbw b Sai Kishore 15, Musheer Khan st. Jagadeesan b Sai Kishore 55, Mohit Avasthi st. Jagadeesan b Sai Kishore 2, Ajinkya Rahane c Indrajith b Sai Kishore 19, Shreyas Iyer b Warrier 3, Hardik Tamore c Washington b Sai Kishore 35, Shams Mulani b Sai Kishore 0, Shardul Thakur c Jagadeesan b Kuldeep Sen 109, Tanush Kotian (not out) 89, Tushar Deshpande c Sai Sudharsan b Washington 26; Extras (lb-12, nb-3, pen-5): 20; Total (in 106.5 overs): 378.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-40, 3-48, 4-91, 5-96, 6-106, 7-106, 8-211, 9-290.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Warrier 21-0-77-1, Kuldeep Sen 17-0-75-2, Mohammed 8-2-21-0, Sai Kishore 38-9-99-6, Ajith Ram 14-1-68-0, Washington 7.5-0-21-1, Pradosh 1-1-0-0.
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: Sai Sudharsan c Tamore b Shardul 5, N. Jagadeesan lbw b Shardul 0, Washington Sundar c Tamore b Avasthi 4, B. Indrajith c Tamore b Avasthi 70, Pradosh Ranjan Paul c Tamore b Kotian 25, Vijay Shankar st. Tamore b Mulani 24, R. Sai Kishore b Kotian 21, M. Mohammed c Rahane b Mulani 0, S. Ajith Ram b Mulani 4, Sandeep Warrier c Shreyas b Mulani 0, Kuldeep Sen (not out) 1; Extras (b-5, lb-2, nb-1): 8; Total (in 51.5 overs): 162.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-6, 3-10, 4-83, 5-121, 6-153, 7-154, 8-160, 9-161.
Mumbai bowling: Shardul 10-4-16-2, Avasthi 10-2-26-2, Deshpande 9-1-26-0, Mulani 13.5-1-53-4, Kotian 5-0-18-2, Musheer 4-0-16-0.
Player-of-the-Match: Shardul Thakur.
