Ranji Trophy: Tare special sends TN on a leather hunt

Aditya Tare scored 154 in the first innings as Mumbai finished at 488 while Tamil Nadu finished day two at 66 for no loss at Chennai.

Mumbai skipper scored 154 in the first innings against Tamil Nadu at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Before the match against Tamil Nadu, Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare was in woeful form with just 55 runs from six Ranji Trophy innings.

If not for the absence of some big players, Tare might have well been dropped for this match and would have needed a big innings to justify his place.

By the end of the second day’s play here at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, Tare trebled his season’s tally with a brilliant 154 (253b, 19x4, 2x6) to take Mumbai to a 488 in the first innings. In reply, TN finished on 66 for no loss with Abhinav Mukund batting on 52.

Resuming on 284/6, Mumbai lost an early wicket when T. Natarajan had Vinayak Bhoir caught at short-leg.

But Tare, who started the day on 69, continued from where he left off and struck a crucial 123-run stand with Shashank Attarde for the eighth wicket.

Boundaries galore

Tare started with two boundaries off Natarajan before picking two more off Ashwin through the offside as he got to his ninth First Class ton.

The skipper then went after the spinners, hitting Aparajith for two sixes straight down the ground in one over and swept Sai Kishore convincingly for a few boundaries.

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TN’s bowlers — including the spinners — once again looked lacklustre and never really threatened the batsmen. They soon resorted to some very defensive bowling.

Second fiddle

Attarde, meanwhile, played second fiddle to his skipper without taking many risks and capitalised on a spread-out field as Mumbai went to lunch on 397/7.

After lunch, Tare found two boundaries off Natarajan, the second a beautiful cover drive to take him to 152, before he was dismissed by the same bowler caught at slip with Aparajith taking a diving catch.

Attarde, and later Tushar Desphande, then stepped up the scoring with the former scoring a half-century. Deshpande was severe on Ashwin hitting him for three sixes in his unbeaten 39.

Glorious shots

For the host — which had sedate start with 17 runs off 13 overs — Abhinav played some glorious shots against the spinners.

He quickly moved to his half-century with seven boundaries and TN would hope he gets a big one to help save the match.

Brief scores:

Mumbai - 1st innings 488 all out (Shams Mulani 87, Aditya Tare 154; Sai Kishore 4-125)

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 66 for no loss (Abhinav Mukund (batting) 52, L. Suryapprakash (batting) 11).