MUMBAI: Ranji giants Mumbai pulled off a thrilling one-wicket win over Tamil Nadu despite a spirited effort by their spinners in a Group B fixture at the Bandra Kurla Complex here on Sunday.
Chasing 236, the hosts were propelled by half-centuries from Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav, and eventually won the match by the skin of their teeth, with last pair Balwinder Sandhu and Vishal Dabholkar seeing out 40 balls between them to rescue the hosts.
At one stage, Mumbai were cruising at 202 for 4. But then they lost four wickets for 13 runs, giving the visitors a great chance of completing a heist. Spinner Rahil Shah and Malolan Rangarajan were again the chief instigators, as they shared seven wickets between them.
But all their efforts were overshadowed by young Shreyas, whose 83 came off just 71 balls, with the help of nine fours and a brace of sixes. He came in the very second over, with A Aswin Crist inducing an edge off Shrideep Mangela to Dinesh Karthik for zero with the last ball of his first over.
The 20-year-old then shared a second-wicket partnership of 63 runs with Akhil Herwadkar to steady the ship. But Malolan had the latter caught by B Aparajith. Soon they lost skipper Aditya Tare too. However, Suryakumar furnished him with ample support, and once Shreyas departed, with the score at 141, the former began to accelerate.
However, Malolan brought Tamil Nadu back into the match with the wicket of Suryakumar. At the same score, they lost Dhawal Kulkarni, and with the addition of seven more runs, Shardul Thakur too exited. But Abhishek Raut took his chances and chipped in with a valuable 22 off 33 balls. However, with just five runs short of the target, Shah nailed Raut. But Mumbai’s bowling hero Dabholkar held his end up to ensure a nail-biting finish.
Mumbai now have 14 points from three matches while Tamil Nadu have nine.
Scoreboard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings) 434.Mumbai (1st innings) 294.
Tamil Nadu (2nd innings o/n 73/7) Rangarajan c Tare b Dabholkar 33, Crist c Thakur b Dabholkar 4, Mohammed b Kulkarni 0, Shah (not out) 0. Extras (b 1, lb 4) 5. Total (all out; 36 ovs) 95. Fall of wickets: 8-94, 9-95. Bowling: Thakur 8-3-19-2, Dabholkar 18-3-53-7, Kulkarni 9-3-17-1, Lad 1-0-1-0.
Mumbai (2nd innings) Mangela c Karthik b Crist 0, Herwadkar c Aparajith b Rangarajan 24, Iyer c Vijay b Shah 83, Tare c Karthik b Mohammed 8, Suryakumar c Aparajith b Rangarajan 58, Lad c Indrajith b Shah 29, Raut c Rangarajan b Shah 22, Kulkarni c Karthik b Rangarajan 0, Thakur b Shah 2, Sandhu (not out) 3, Dabholkar (not out) 2. Extras (lb 4, w 1) 5. Total (9 wkts; 60.4 ovs) 236. Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-63, 3-89, 4-141, 5-202, 6-208, 7-208, 8-215, 9-232. Bowling: Crist 6-1-18-1, Mohammed 11-0-65-1, Shah 25-4-78-4, Kousik 3-0-21-0, Rangarajan 13.4-3-44-3, Aparajith 2-0-6-0.
Ranji Wrap
Group A
At Kolkata: Rajasthan 198 & 146/5 (A Menaria 69 n.o) drew with Bengal l 282 (A Easwaran 53, M Tiwary 83, P Shaw 52, Ajay Singh 3/72). Pts: Bengal 3, Rajasthan 1.
At New Delhi: Haryana 195 & 265 lost to Delhi 237 & 225/6 (U Chand 99, Harshal Patel 4/76). Pts: Delhi 6, Haryana 0.
At Bengaluru: Karnataka 350 & 331/3 dec (R Samarth 121 n.o, Karun Nair 101 n.o) drew with Vidarbha 310 & 17/0. Pts: Karnataka 3, Vidarbha 1.
Group B
At Vizianagaram: Baroda 302 & 60/2 drew with Andhra 474/6 dec (R Bhui 116, AG Pradeep 100). Pts: Andhra 3, Baroda 1.
At Mohali: Gujarat 467 & 135/4 (B Merai 56) drew with Punjab 608 (Yuvraj Singh 187, Bhatt 8/151). Pts: Punjab 3, Gujarat 1.
At Ghaziabad: Railways 375 & 229/4 dec (Faiz Ahmed 80) bt Uttar Pradesh 264 & 58 (Anureet Singh 5/15, K Upadhyay 4/32). Pts: Railways 6, UP 0.
Group C
At Dharamsala: Hyderabad 434 & 2/0 drew with Himachal Pradesh 707/8 dec (R Bist 220 n.o, R Dhawan 114, Milind 3/161). Pts: HP 3, Hyderabad 1.
At Malappuram: Jharkhand 202 & 262 bt Kerala 148 & 183 (A Kodoth 72, S Nadeem 7/64). Pts: Jharkhand 6, Kerala 0.