After TN skipper’s Mukund’s brave declaration at 356-6, the defending champions now require 246 to register a win in 90 overs on the final day today with all 10 wickets intact
Abhinav Mukund, Baba Indrajith
Tamil Nadu’s A Mukund (left) and B Indrajith put on 185 runs for 2nd wicket in the semi-final vs Mumbai yesterday. Pic/Bipin Tankaria
Rajkot: Even though the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final belonged to Tamil Nadu with two centuries from skipper Abhinav Mukund (122) and Baba Indrajith (138), Mumbai too are not out of the game as yet. After TN skipper’s Mukund’s brave declaration at 356-6, the defending champions now require 246 to register a win in 90 overs on the final day today with all 10 wickets intact.
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Set to score 251 for a win, Mumbai were five for no loss with openers Prithvi Shaw and Praful Waghela batting on two and three respectively, when stumps were drawn for the day at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Khandheri yesterday.
"A target of 250 I think is not very big, but not very easy also when you are batting last. So you have to look at both sides of the coin. It is very important how we bat now. Going by history, I think our batsmen will do well in crunch situations. I am just hoping that they do that here too," said Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit.
Trailing by 101 runs, TN resumed proceedings with openers Ganga Sridhar Raju (28) and Mukund putting on 64 runs for the first wicket.
Tare was guilty of letting Mukund off the hook when he failed to stump the TN skipper off the bowling off left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil when the batsman was on 70. In the next over, Gohil failed to hold on to a return catch. Capitalising on the two reprieves, Mukund reached his hundred by lifting Gohil towards the mid-wicket fence. Mukund had 11 hits to the fence during his hundred. The captain also stitched a 185-run stand for the second wicket with Indrajith, who scored 138.
Meanwhile, Mumbai earned five additional runs to their first innings total after the on-field umpire penalised TN wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and Vijay Shankar for running on the pitch with an intention of damaging the wicket. Mumbai was fined 20 per cent of their match fee for their slow over-rate and skipper Tare was fined an additional 10 per cent for arguing with the umpire.
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