Close on the heels of his century effort as a No. 11 batsman against Baroda, Mumbai pacer Tushar Deshpande decided it’s a good time to strike early in his spell with the red cherry.
He did so with three wickets to put Mumbai on top in their Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu at the MCA-BKC ground on Saturday.
Clearly, Day One of the tie belonged to the 41-time champions, who shot out the opposition for 146. At stumps, the hosts were 45 for the loss of Prithvi Shaw and Bhupen Lalwani.
Deshpande’s 3-24 included three of TN’s top five batsmen—Pradosh Ranjan Paul, captain Sai Kishore and Baba Indrajith.
Early breakthrough
TN skipper Sai Kishore decided to bat on a grassy pitch and immediately faced the consequences when openers Sai Sudharsan (0) and Narayan Jagadeesan (4) were back in the dressing room by the sixth over. International pacer Shardul Thakur (2-48) trapped Sudharsan leg before in the day’s very first over before Jagadeesan misjudged pacer Mohit Avasthi’s (1-23) length and offered an easy catch to short leg fielder Musheer Khan.
One-drop Paul (8) opened his and the team’s account with a four; a well-timed flick off Thakur on the very first ball he faced.
However, he didn’t last long as Deshpande, who was introduced in the ninth over as first change, held on to a caught andchance in his first over.
Kishore (1), who played a patient knock of 60 off 144 balls against Saurashtra at No.3 in the quarter-final at Coimbatore, was sent at No.4 and took 10 balls to open his account. He failed to counter Deshpande’s fuller length delivery only to see his stumps uprooted. By the 17th over, TN had lost their most experienced batsman Indrajith (11), who is playing his 75th first-class game, with the scoreboard reading 42-5.
His attempt to hit a Deshpande delivery through the midwicket region failed and Tanush Kotian took a splendid diving catch in front of him at short midwicket.
It looked like the hosts would bowl out TN inside 100, but two India all-rounders—Vijay Shankar (44, 8×4) and Washington Sundar (43, 5×4) stitched a partnership of 48 runs, the highest stand of the innings.