With Mumbai enjoying a sizeable lead of 415 runs and the semifinal place all but assured, the last day’s play of its Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Baroda was going to be a drab affair. But Tanush Kotian and Tushar Deshpande – Mumbai’s unbeaten last-wicket pair – had other plans.
The duo – neither of whom can be referred to as a tailender – hammered centuries to end Baroda’s impressive season on a bizarre note and shatter a plethora of records en route.
By the time Deshpande mistimed a heave to be caught in the deep, he had tonked 123 (129b, 10x4, 8x6) - the highest individual score for a No. 11 batter in the history of the Ranji Trophy. And the duo’s association of 232 runs off 234 balls was the second-highest last-wicket partnership in the tournament’s history.
As a result, Mumbai left Baroda with an insurmountable task of scoring 606 runs off 58 overs. By the time the teams shook hands at Tea, Baroda tallied 121 for three. Opener Priyanshu Moliya scored an impressive fifty while Kotian carried on his confidence from batting to pick two wickets, including Moliya’s, with a classical off-spinner that beat Moliya’s defence to crash into the stumps.
The morning session turned out to be a memorable one for the sparse spectators present at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy. In a session that fetched 190 runs off 30 overs, neither Kotian nor Deshpande attempted slogs. The manner in which Kotian drove the ball was a treat to watch, while Deshpande, the left-handed batter, went after Bhargav Bhatt’s left-arm spin.
Six of Deshpande’s eight sixes – five over long-on and one over long-off – came off Bhatt as the ‘ Kalyan Express’ made a strong case to not be sent at No. 11 in a line-up that seldom has a tailender proper.
Kotian was the first to reach the landmark, with a single off Bhatt down the wicket, while Deshpande joined him in the next over, with a rare cross-batted heave off Mahesh Pithiya.
Mumbai will now face Tamil Nadu in the semifinal at the same venue from Saturday.
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