Mumbai 45 for 2 (Musheer 24*, Sai Kishore 1-3) trail Tamil Nadu 146 (Vijay 44, Washington 43, Deshpande 3-24, Kotian 2-10) by 101 runs
After opting to bat on a grassy, red-soil pitch at the Bandra Kurla Complex, Tamil Nadu folded for 146 in their semi-final against Mumbai. Fast bowler Tushar Deshpande carved up the top half of the TN line-up with seam movement and extra bounce before spinners Tanush Kotian and Musheer Khan wrapped up the tail in the post-tea session. In response, Mumbai lost both Prithvi Shaw (5) and Bhupen Lalwani (15), but Musheer and nightwatcher Mohit Avasthi guided their team to stumps without any further hiccups.
Avasthi had combined with Shardul Thakur to set the tone for Mumbai’s opening-day dominance. After going wide of the crease and beating N Jagadeesan’s inside edge, Avasthi hit the inside edge and had the opening batter popping a catch to short leg for 4. Thakur had struck in the very first over when he pinned B Sai Sudharsan lbw with an inswinger for a duck. Sudharsan, who was returning to action after recovering from a back niggle, also burnt a review during the process.
Deshpande then ripped out Pradosh Ranjan Paul (8), R Sai Kishore (1) and B Indrajith (11) to leave TN at 42 for 5. Captain Sai Kishore had bumped himself up to No.4 as a pinch-blocker to protect the middle order, but the move backfired this time, with Deshpande bursting through his defences and knocking him over for 1. In their home quarter-final against Saurashtra, Sai Kishore had promoted himself to No.3 and scored a crucial half-century to drag TN into the lead.
Washington Sundar, who was released from India’s Test squad, and Vijay Shankar forged a 48-run partnership off 191 balls for the sixth wicket to briefly resist Mumbai’s red-hot attack. Vijay got going with a flicked four off Avasthi and a punchy straight drive off Deshpande. But Thakur stopped him on 44 after lunch. He had angled one in from over the wicket and got it to seam away just enough to kiss the outside edge.
Washington’s innings could have been cut short on 11 had Shreyas Iyer latched onto a tough chance in the slips off Thakur. Washington had another nervy moment on 19 when he was given out lbw off left-arm fingerspinner Shams Mulani. But a review saved him, with the tracker indicating that the ball would have bounced over the stumps on the red-soil surface.
After the moisture dried up, Washington took more risks along with the lower order, but they could not take TN to 150. M Mohammed, who hit a career-best 85 off 99 balls in the first round, laced Thakur for four successive fours in the 51st over. Musheer, though, ended Mohammed’s cameo in the next over, his first of the innings, when he had him nicking behind to slip. Musheer also trapped Sandeep Warrier with his left-arm fingerspin to finish with 2 for 18. Kotian, the offspinner, dismissed both left-handers Washington and S Ajith Ram to also come away with two wickets.
Kuldeep Sen, TN’s guest pacer who had sat out of the last three games, then marked his return with the dismissal of Shaw in his first over. Sai Kishore had Lalwani, Mumbai’s highest run-getter this season, lbw, but the hosts trimmed the deficit to 101 by stumps. With both Iyer and captain Ajinkya Rahane in the shed, Mumbai will look to bat TN out of the semi-final on Sunday.
