Captain Abhinav Mukund and Baba Indrajit helped Tamil Nadu erase a deficit of 101 runs on Day 4 of the Ranji Trophy Semi Final round against Mumbai in Rajkot today.
At the end of 50 overs, Captain Abhinav Mukund and his partner Baba Indrajit had helped their team reach 201 for 1 apart from taking a lead of over 100 runs. Mukund and Indrajit were on 93 and 71, respectively.
Tamil Nadu bowled out the defending team for 406 by giving an ordinary total of 305 in the first innings. Aditya Tare (83) played the captain’s knock while Abhishek Nayar and Shardul Thakur amazingly give a fine bowling effort with half-centuries to help Mumbai take the all-important lead.
Eventually, Jharkhand gained the upper hand in the Ranji Trophy semi-final but got defeated in front of Gujarat to 100 for four in their second innings after taking a first innings lead of 408-run on Nagpur in its third day.
When the match was resumed with Jharkhand’s 214-5 batsmen Ishank Jaggi (129), who built a 97-run seventh wicket stand with Kaushal Singh (53) as the first time semi-finalists moved past Gujarat’s first innings total of 390.
Trailing by 18 runs, Gujarat were troubled by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who chipped in three wickets for 36 runs. At stumps, Gujarat were 100-4, with a lead of 82 runs.
The Gujarat bowlers performed extremely well in the front of Jharkhand and then Jaggi, the lone recognised unbeaten batsman, remained unbeaten on 40 on Monday. he was well-supported by Rahul Shukla (27) and Kaushal.
The Jaggi-Shukla partnership fetched 70 runs as the former inched towards his 15th first-class century. After Hardik Patel dismissed Shukla with an LBW decision, Jharkhand was at 283-6 trailing Gujarat still by 107-run.
But Gujarat unable to handle the right amount of pressure on Jaggi, who played with ease and continued to drive Jharkhand’s innings with the help of Kaushal, with whom he shared a crafty 97-run stand.
Their stand was broken by pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who dismantled Kaushal’s stumps. Jaggi too followed him to the pavilion while offering a catch to Rujul Bhatt off an R.P. Singh’s delivery. But, by then Jharkhand already got past Gujarat’s total by three-run lead.
Nadeem scored 16 runs but eventually Singh removed him while claiming Ajay Yadav (6), who was the last batsman to be dismissing for Jharkhand. Singh took 6-90, while Hardik carried two wickets for 108-run.
Gujarat got a huge blow early in their second innings when first innings centurion, opening batsman Priyank Kirit Panchal, got ran out for 1 with the team at 18-1. Samit Gohel (49) and Bhargav Merai (44) helped Gujarat overcome the early blow with a solid 69-run stand for the second wicket.
But spinner Nadeem had other plans where he managed to clean up Merai before captain and India wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel (1) was caught by Virat Singh off Nadeem’s bowling, to leave Gujarat in a spot of bother at 93-3.
To make matters worse for Gujarat, Nadeem earned an LBW verdict against Gohel, as the western outfit lost its fourth wicket for just 98 runs.
