Rajkot, Jan 3:
Aditya Tare played a captain’s knock while Abhishek Nayar and Shardul Thakur complemented their fine bowling effort with half-centuries to help Mumbai take the all-important first innings lead over Tamil Nadu in the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament, here today.
Tare made a fine 83 off 181 deliveries with the help of nine boundaries to held together Mumbai’s first innings.
He was ably supported by Nayar (58) and Thakur (52) as Mumbai made 406 in their first innings in reply to Tamil Nadu’s 305 before being bowled out at stumps on the third day of the five-day marque encounter.
Mumbai, thus, enjoy a lead of 101 runs over Tamil Nadu with the match interestingly poised with two full day’s play remaining.
Nayar (4/66) and Thakur (4/75) were the star bowlers for Mumbai earlier as they picked up eight wickets between them during Tamil Nadu’s first innings.
Resuming at the overnight score of 171 for four, Mumbai lost Shreyas Iyer (36) early.
But then Tare and Nayar joined hands and the duo shared 121 runs for the sixth wicket to take Mumbai to a strong position.
Soon after overwhelming Tamil Nadu’s first innings score, Nayar and Tare departed in quick succession.
But Thakur and Balwinder Sandhu (32) played sensibly to ensure Mumbai take at least 100 runs lead over their opponents.
Right-arm medium pacer Vijay Shankar turned out to be the pick of the bowlers for Tamil Nadu with figures of four for 59 from 20 overs.
Shankar got good support from Baba Aparajith who picked up two crucial wickets of Nayar and Thakur with his off-spin bowling.
Brief Scores:
Tamil Nadu: 305 all out in 115.2 overs (Baba Indrajith 64, Kaushik Gandhi 50, Vijay Shankar 50; Abhishek Nayar 4/66, Shardul Thakur 4/75).
Mumbai: 406 all out in 150.3 overs (Aditya Tare 83, Suryakumar Yadav 73, Abhishek Nayar 58, Shardul Thakur 52; Vijay Shankar 4/59). PTI
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