Ranji Trophy: Battle of attrition

Rajkot: The Ranji Trophy semi-final clash between Tamil Nadu and Mumbai was evenly poised at the end of day two here at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

After being pinned to the mat for the major part of the day, Tamil Nadu staged a valiant fightback with three quick wickets in the final session before skipper Aditya Tare and Shreyas Iyer steadied the wobbling Mumbai ship. At stumps, Mumbai were 171/4 in 60 overs in pursuit of Tamil Nadu’s first innings total of 305.

The defending champions Mumbai trail by 134 runs with the onus of taking the all-important first-innings honours resting on the shoulders of Tare (19 not out) and Shreyas (24 not out).

After bowling out Tamil Nadu for 305, Mumbai suffered an early setback when they lost teenage debutant Prithvi Shaw in the very first over of their innings.

Suryakumar Yadav, promoted up the order after their regular one-drop Shreyas took ill owing to food poisoning, and left-handed opener Praful Waghela took Mumbai to a position of strength with a century partnership. Suryakumar, however, rode on his luck. A streaky slice flew just over a jumping first-slip fielder and off the very next ball he survived a close LBW appeal. Tamil Nadu would definitely feel being deprived of an opportunity as television footage showed the ball making contact with the pad on the off-stump line.

A colourful cricketer and also known for his penchant for playing unorthodox shots, Suryakumar was more disciplined with his shot selection, especially after the reprieve, and preferred playing in the V. The post-lunch session was a test of character for TN’s pace troika of Aswin Crist, K. Vignesh and T. Natarajan who has a season tally of 94 wickets between them.

Mumbai were scoring at a brisk run-rate until left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas was introduced. At tea, Mumbai were cruising at 111/1 in 34 overs.

Desperate for a breakthrough, Tamil Nadu realised the importance of lifting themselves on the field by turning chirpy. Wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik egged the bowlers on with words of encouragement and others too joined the chorus.

Shankar triggers mini-collapse
Medium pace all-rounder Vijay Shankar soon triggered the mini collapse by dismissing Suryakumar thus ending the 121-run stand. Waghela joined Suryakumar in the dugout after a mixup. Though the throw from TN skipper Abhinav Mukund was a little wide, Karthik whipped off the bails in a jiffy to catch the diving batsman short of the crease. When Aushik Srinivas forced Siddesh Lad to chip a drive straight into the hands of Abhinav, Mumbai were in trouble at 128/4. They had lost three wickets in a span of 11 balls.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu could add only 44 runs to their overnight total of 261/6 before they were bundled out in 115.2 overs. Vijay, who showed great maturity the previous day, perished soon after completing his half-century, playing a wide delivery to find an outside edge to the ‘keeper, ending the crucial seventh wicket partnership with Aswin a run short of 50. The hopes of a creditable total on a good batting surface vanished with Vijay’s departure. Aswin showed some resilience in his 31 to take TN past 300.

Scoreboard
Tamil Nadu (I innings, 261/6): V. Shankar c Tare b Thakur 50, B. Aparajith c Yadav b Gohil 9, A. Aswin Crist c & b Nayar 31, A. Srinivas c Tare b Nayar 4, K. Vignesh lbw Thakur 5, T. Natarajan (n.o.) 0. Extras: (b4, lb7, nb8) 19.
Total: (in 115.2 overs) 305
FoW: 6-231, 7-280, 8-298, 9-305
Bowling: S. Thakur 28.2-6-75-4, B. Sanndhu 22-6-56-1, A. Nayar 29-7-66-4, A. Girap 13-3-35-0, V. Gohil 23-5-62-1
Mumbai (I innings): P. Shaw c Karthik b Crist 4, P. Waghela (run out) 48. S. Yadav c Karthik b Shankar 73, A. Tare (batting) 19, S. Lad c Mukund b Srinivas 0, S. Iyer (batting) 24. Extras: (lb2, nb1) 3.
Total: (for 4 wkts, 60 overs) 171
FoW: 1-4, 2-125, 3-128, 4-128
Bowling: A. Crist 10-0-48-1, T. Natarjan 12-3-41-0, K. Vignesh 10-1-37-0, R. Aushik Srinivas 18-8-22-1, B. Aparajith 2-0-6-0, V. Shankar 7-2-14-1, V.G. Sridhar Raju 1-0-1-0