Ranji Trophy: It's slipping away from Mumbai

Wasim Jaffer’s unimaginative captaincy, a shocking gaffe from umpire K Hariharan, some atrocious shot selection and an inspirational spell of fast bowling by Lakshmipathy Balaji on Wednesday put Mumbai on the brink of a disgraceful exit from the Ranji Trophy.

The 22-yard strip at the Wankhede Stadium was placid but so pathetic was the application shown by the 39-time champions that they ended Day Two of their semifinal clash on 121 for six, still 238 behind. Tamil Nadu have never beaten Mumbai in a knockout tie, but they look good to become ‘eighth time lucky’. To put it simply, Hiken Shah (21 batting; 49 balls, 3x4), Dhawal Kulkarni (5 batting) and the tail have a Herculean task at hand.

And if allowing Tamil Nadu’s batsmen to add 109 runs to their overnight tally of 250 wasn’t enough, Mumbai’s batsmen made matters worse by surrendering meekly. The visitors, who were bowled out 47 minutes after lunch when Balwinder Singh Sandhu Jr dismissed Jagannathan Kaushik to register his second straight five-wicket haul at this ground, reduced Mumbai to 14 for three in 6.5 overs.

And just like on Tuesday, three wickets fell in the space of six deliveries. Balaji had Kaustubh Pawar (1) caught behind on the last ball of the fifth over. Onkar Gurav (2) was his second victim, caught at first slip. Jaffer negotiated the hat-trick ball with ease, but a blunder from the umpire cost him his wicket four balls later. A harmless delivery hit Jaffer’s bat before hitting him well above the knee roll. What’s more, it ballooned towards the gully. K Vasudevadas lunged forward and missed the ball, clearly indicating that there was an edge. However, the umpire shockingly upheld a loud appeal for leg-before. At that point in time, Balaji’s figures read 7-4-11-3.

Mumbai took tea at 36 for three with Abhishek Nayar and Suryakumar Yadav at the crease. Nayar, when on 17, attempted an audacious sweep off the bowling of left-arm spinner R Aushik Srinivas only to give Vasudevadas, now at leg slip, a simple catch.

Yadav, who has scored over 700 runs in his debut season, struck his sixth half-century but his 52 (57 balls, 8x4) did more disservice to the side. Medium-pacer Mahesh (67; 259 balls, 4x4, 2x6), buoyed by his match-defining 152-run stand with centurion R Prasanna (104; 315 balls, 17x4), set up Yadav’s dismissal with canny brilliance. The right-armer stifled the attacking batsman by bowling five balls from around the wicket. He then chose to bowl the final delivery from over the stumps, prompting Yadav to go for the cut. The batsman did exactly that and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik did the rest. Four overs later, all-rounder Ankeet Chavan fell, reducing Mumbai to 98 for six.

Earlier, Jaffer employed only two slips and a gully during the first hour of play, enabling Prasanna and Yo Mahesh to breathe easy. The duo added 41 more before Nayar sent Prasanna back. Jaffer also stunned many by bringing on off-spinner Ramesh Powar only at the stroke of lunch. And the veteran responded by dismissing Balaji for 24 (4x4), thereby signalling lunch.

Scorecard
Tamil Nadu 1st innings (O/N 250/6): R Prasanna b Nayar 104, Y Mahesh lbw b Waingankar 67, L Balaji c Jaffer b Powar 24, J Kaushik c Shah b Sandhu 12, A Srinivas not out 5; Extras (B5, LB5, W2, NB2): 14
Total (all out; 136.1 overs): 359 (2.63 runs per over)
Fall of Wickets: 7/291 (Prasanna, 105.5 ov), 8/333 (Balaji, 125.2 ov), 9/342 (Mahesh, 132.1 ov)
Bowling: D Kulkarni 41-16-91-2, BS Sandhu 26.1-6-88-5, K Waingankar 27-8-54-1, A Nayar 12-2-46-1 (W2), R Powar 13-1-35-1 (NB2), A Chavan 15-3-34-0, S Yadav 2-1-1-0
Mumbai 1st innings: K Pawar c Karthik b Balaji 1, O Gurav c Vijay b Balaji 2, A Nayar c Vasudevadas b Srinivas 17, W Jaffer lbw b Balaji 0, S Yadav c Karthik b Mahesh 52, H Shah batting 21, A Chavan c Vijay b Kaushik 10, D Kulkarni batting 5; Extras (B1, LB5, W2, NB5): 13
Total (6 wickets; 38 overs): 121 (3.18 runs per over)
Fall of Wickets: 1-8 (Pawar, 4.6 ov), 2-14 (Gurav, 6.1 ov), 3-14 (Jaffer, 6.5 ov), 4-61 (Nayar, 19.5 ov), 5-63 (Yadav, 24.6 ov), 6-98 (Chavan, 28.6 ov)
Bowling: L Balaji 9-4-16-3 (NB1), J Kaushik 10-2-33-1 (NB4, W2), Y Mahesh 10-2-43-1, A Srinivas 8-2-18-1, S Gupta 1-0-5-0