TN-Mumbai Ranji Trophy semis: Both faced first hour horror, tail helped Mum sail through

CHENNAI: After Tamil Nadu Ranji team’s head coach Sulakshan Kulkarni’s harsh comments questioning skipper Sai Kishore’s decision to bat first on a pitch that favoured the seamers, a debate is now raging whether State lost the semi-final in the first hour of day one as the coach said.

On the face of it, Tamil Nadu indeed lost the momentum in the initial period itself after losing wickets in quick succession. Aided by the green top, Mumbai bowlers ran through the Tamil Nadu lineup, bundling them for a meagre 146 runs.

However, that is only part of the story.

A closer look at the way the game progressed reveals another side: Just as Mumbai did, Tamil Nadu did have the vaunted side on the mat in the first hour of day two. Well, almost. Starting the day at 45/2, the team which had the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer was tottering at 106/7 in the 48th over. In other words, Mumbai was faring worse than Tamil Nadu.

Interestingly, the wrecker-in-chief was the same Sai Kishore, who snapped five of the seven wickets to fall. He ended the innings with six wickets in 38 overs at an economy of 2.6.

“Even when they (Mumbai) lost seven wickets coming into lunch, I was not fully relieved. Because I know the capabilities of Shardul and other players like Kotian and Deshpande, who were in great form to play a blinder. Before the match, I told Sai that Mumbai’s batting starts at number six,” said Kulkarni.

Here, the coach was spot on, as what followed after the collapse was a spirited rear-guard attack by India international Shardul Thakur, who, along with Hardik Tamore (35), Tanush Kotian (89) and Tushar Deshpande (26) took the team to 378 runs. Such was the Mumbai tail’s performance that even Thakur fell after scoring 109 off 105 balls (13 fours and 4 sixes), the last-wicket pair added 90 more runs. That was a beating that seemingly killed any spirit that was left in the TN ranks.

As the result showed, even if toss was the factor, Tamil Nadu batters were all-out for 162 in the second innings, and lost the game by a massive margin of an innings and 70 runs. At the end of the day, Mumbai outplayed Tamil Nadu making full use of the home conditions - just like how TN made use of the five home matches this season bagging four wins.

But the discussions that followed should have happened within the dressing room and not in public, which triggered the outrage among fans and former players alike.