Captain Vinay Kumar piles on total with a hundred after Nair's mammoth knock ends at 338; TN struggling to save match at 113 for 3
Usually, the Wankhede strip would start assisting spin from the fourth day, but in the Ranji Trophy final between holders Karnataka and Tamil Nadu here, there was no help for any bowler at all, forget spinners.
All the talk of providing a sporting pitch with all the skills of the game coming into the picture went down the drain. The only skill that was seen after 14 wickets fell to medium-pacers on the opening day on Sunday was from the Karnataka batsmen, who collectively batted for 17 hours and 24 minutes to post 762, the second highest in a Ranji final after Baroda's 784 in 291 overs against Holkar in 1946-47.
Karnataka continued to bat until 14 minutes after lunch, when they were all out, but only after captain R Vinay Kumar posted his second Ranji hundred. He made an unbeaten 105 (376 minutes, 319 balls, 10x4, 3x6) to match his only other century against Punjab in 2013-14 in Hubli. Vinay became the first captain to make a double of five wickets (5/34) and a century in a Ranji final. He joined legendary Vijay Hazare, whose birth centenary was celebrated on Wednesday, as the only ones to take five wickets and score a century in a final. Hazare's feat (6/85 and 288) came for Baroda against Holkar in 1946-47.
Thriving on a flat deck, Karnataka's marathon innings began post tea on Sunday and ended after lunch on Wednesday, enjoying a lead of 628. At stumps, TN were 113/3, still needing 515 to avoid the embarrassment of an innings defeat.
When play resumed on the fourth day, Tamil Nadu straightaway adopted a leg trap for the overnight not out batsmen Karun Nair and Vinay. Medium-pacers Lakshmipathi Balaji and Ashwin Crist bowled with five men on the on-side including two men behind square and three in front of it. They bowled around the stumps with the hope of forcing them into mistakes and offering a catch.
But Nair and Vinay fended them off with aplomb. Triple-centurion Nair, who was 310 last night, broke Gul Mohammad's record of 319 for the highest score in a Ranji final (set in 1946-47 for Baroda against Holkar) while Vinay posted a century.
When the leg trap did not work for TN, medium-pacer Vijay Shankar resorted to the conventional over-the-wicket line to Nair, and immediately succeeded, trapping him in front as the batsman shaped to defend off the backfoot. Nair's 328 off 560 balls (46x4, 1x6) was nine short of Karnataka's highest individual score, which stayed with KL Rahul (337).
If Tamil Nadu thought they were two scalps shy of hastening the Karnataka end and getting some respite, they were wrong. Spinners Malolan Rangarajan, Baba Aparajith, his twin Aparajith and Murali Vijay only rolled their arms over as Vinay and No. 10 Sreenath Aravind shared 83 for the penultimate wicket. This, after the Nair-Vinay stand yielded 142 for the eighth.
Declaration was never on the cards as Vinay was closing in on a personal milestone — his second career hundred. Aravind posted his maiden first-class fifty (50, 57 balls, 9x4) before Shankar dismissed him out to a reflex catch at short-leg. Even No. 11 HS Sharath batted for almost an hour, helping Vinay reach his century before stepping out to Rangarajan and being stumped.
Tamil Nadu would have loved to replicate what the Karnataka tail did but that was not to be. Test opener Murali Vijay looked good for a big score but fell leg before to Vinay Kumar, who did not seem tired after batting for more than six hours while Gopal cashed in on Mukund's and Indrajith's poor shot selections.
SCOREBOARD
Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 134
Karnataka (1st innings, o/n: 618/7): K Nair lbw b Shankar 328, R Vinay Kumar (not out) 105, S Arvind c sub (Shahrukh Khan) b Crist 50, HS Sharath st Indrajith b Rangarajan 8
Extras (B9, LB3, NB1) 13
Total (all out, 231.2 overs) 762
Fall of wickets: 7-501 (Gopal), 8-643 (Nair), 9-726 (Arvind)
Bowling: P Parameswaran 22-5-66-1, L Balaji 42-5-120-3, A Crist 37-5-140-2, M Rangarajan 53.2-5-183-3, V Shankar 29-4-92-1, B Aparajith 26-3-83-0, B Indrajith 8-1-26-0, M Vijay 14-1-40-0
Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): A Mukund b Gopal 13, M Vijay lbw b Vinay 27, B Aparajith (batting) 36, B Indrajith c Vinay b Gopal 18, V Shankar (batting) 15
Extras (LB4) 4
Total (for 3 wkts, 40 overs) 113
Fall of wickets: 1-30 (Mukund), 2-47 (Vijay), 3-79 (Indrajith).
Bowling: A Mithun 9-2-24-0, HS Sharath 8-3-20-0, S Arvind 7-1-12-0, S Gopal 9-2-36-2, R Vinay Kumar 7-1-17-1.
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