Mumbai bowlers were made to look pretty ordinary as Tamil Nadu piled on 501 on Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy Super League match at the MCA Ground in Bandra Kurla Complex on Wednesday.
Overnight centurion Subramaniam Badrinath went on to bat for 671 minutes before being the last man dismissed for a career-best 250. C Ganapathy, too, made the most of a dead wicket hitting his maiden first-class century, a well-crafted 126.
With the wicket offering nothing for the bowlers, the only possible way a Tamil Nadu batsman looked like getting dismissed was through a run out. That’s exactly what happened when Ganapathy slipped while responding to a tight call by Badri. Rahane threw the cherry right above the stumps for ‘keeper Vinayak Samant to complete the run out.
In came debutant wicket-keeper U Sushil. The 20-year-old seemed at ease and put on a 49-run partnership with Badri before getting stumped in a bid to accelerate. The true character of the pitch could be judged from the fact that the last three batsmen, all bona fide tail-enders, hung on for over 90 minutes before giving in.
After toiling for 734 minutes on the field, Mumbai players finally found some respite with Tamil Nadu ending at 501, quite a recovery considering that they were 50/5 at one stage. The sixth-wicket partnership between Badri and Ganapathy was worth 329 runs in 471 minutes.
Mumbai faced six overs to end the day at 10 for no loss. Debutant Praful Waghela was batting on four and Sahil Kukreja on 5.
But Mumbai weren’t a worried lot. Coach Pravin Amre said that his side has a good batting line-up and they can learn from Badri and Ganapathy’s application.
TN coach WV Raman defended his side’s scoring rate on an otherwise easy wicket. “It is that man called Virender Sehwag who has made scoring look so easy that all batsmen are expected to play like him but that isn’t possible,” explained the coach. Though he felt that the pitch had no devil in it, Badri and Ganapthy’s display negated all that was left in the strip.
Amre had a different take on the 22-yard strip. “Post tea on Day 3 there will definitely be some spin,” he said.
SCORECARD
Tamil Nadu first innings (O/N 251/5): S Badrinath c&b Abdulla 250, C Ganapathy run out (Rahane) 126, U Sushil st Samant b Abdulla 30, Y Mahesh c Kukreja b Powar 11, L Balaji lbw b Kulkarni 9, RA Srinivas not out 0; Extras: (LB11, W11, NB6) 28; Total (all out; 171.3 overs) 501; FoW: 6/379 (Ganapathy, 128.1 ovs), 7/428 (Sushil, 143.2 ovs), 8/448 (Mahesh, 152.2 ovs), 9/481 (Balaji, 166.4 ovs); Bowling: D Kulkarni 36-9-93-3, U Malvi 30-5-108-3, R Powar 37-4-121-1, A Nayar 19-4-51-0, I Abdulla 46.3-10-104-2, P Waghela 3-0-13-0
Mumbai first innings: P Waghela batting 5, S Kukreja batting 4; Extras: (LB1) 1; Total (0 wickets; 6 overs) 10; Bowling: C Ganapathy 2-2-0-0, L Balaji 3-2-5-0, R Srinivas 1-0-4-0.
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