What promised to be a tantalising contest turned out to be a drab one-sided match as Tamil Nadu thrashed Mumbai by seven wickets in the quarterfinal of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the Sanosara Cricket Ground B here on Monday. The Dinesh Karthik-led side will now meet Haryana in the first semifinal on Wednesday.
About 30 kilometres away from the city, against the backdrop of fields and wasteland, Mumbai yet again failed to find its bearings with the bat.
Baba Indrajith’s ton and Vijay Shankar’s fifty took Tamil Nadu over the line with plenty to spare. Indrajith, who seemed rushed at the beginning, scooping to the boundary and then toe-ending one attempting the same shot, played with maturity for a fifty off 70-odd balls before switching gears. Vijay hit the odd boundary but relied more on using his feet well against the spinners during his unbeaten 126-run alliance with Indrajith.
The chase was set up by N. Jagadeesan and Baba Aparajith’s 50-run stand. They punched through covers and cut the ball late to collect boundaries while the ball was new. Though they fell trying to up the ante, Indrajith and Vijay ensured that didn’t cost Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu players celebrate a Mumbai wicket. | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI / The Hindu
Earlier, with the sun beating down, Ajinkya Rahane understandably elected to bat, but his openers couldn’t make the most of it. With little swing on offer, left-arm spinner M. Siddharth was given the new ball and he removed Divyaansh Saxena for a duck off the last ball of the second over.
Jay Bista and Hardik Tamore consolidated with a fifty-run stand, piercing the gaps by playing with high elbows on a pitch that had true bounce and appreciable turn. Just as it looked like Tamil Nadu was in for a long and frustrating day on the field in scorching heat, Karthik’s astute rotation of his spinners worked like a dream.
R. Sai Kishore drew Tamore’s leading edge in his first over and a change of ends for Varun Chakravarthy in the following over had Rahane looping the ball up while pressing forward only for Karthik to run in from behind the stumps and complete the catch. The spin duo had Mumbai in a tangle with their lengths that troubled the batters’ footwork. Though Prasad Pawar stitched two vital partnerships with Bista and Shivam Dube en route to a brisk half-century, the rest of the batting caved.
Dube, after hitting his third six down the ground off spin, was caught in the deep trying to clear the same area next ball. Shams Mulani and Mohit Avasthi struck a sensible 35-run partnership for the eighth wicket, looking to play the full quota of 50 overs, but it was too little, too late.
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