Ranji Trophy: Late drama as Mumbai win humdinger

Mumbai now have 14 points from 3 matches and are in the race for a place in the knock-outs. (Source: Express Photo)

“Naangalum daan cricket aada vandurkom (We too have come to play cricket) I think we still will win this.”

Considering the situation of the match, Malolan Rangarajan’s bold declaration on Saturday did sound a tad ambitious. Maybe he was just putting up a brave front. Tamil Nadu had been reduced to 73/7, only 213 ahead, and with Mumbai holding all the aces. But Rangarajan wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. In his opinion, his team wasn’t ready to go down without a fight.

As the two teams headed for the tea-break on the fourth day, however, it was difficult not to recall the Tamil Nadu off-spinner’s words from the previous evening and have a quiet chuckle about it. Little did anyone know then how harrowingly close Rangarajan and his team would come to having the last laugh before Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Vishal Dabholkar stole a dramatic win for Mumbai with just a wicket to spare.

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At that juncture though, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav had brought Mumbai to the brink of a famous come-from-behind win. Set 236 to chase in a minimum of 85 overs, the two aggressive right-handers had left the hosts with just 28 to get in the final session and still 37 overs left in the day. Iyer had departed along the way for a sprightly 83 while Yadav was well-set on 58. Despite losing Siddhesh Lad right at the end of the second session, the hosts still had five wickets left. Incidentally, Rangarajan had hardly got a bowl, even though he had started his first spell with the wicket of Akhil Herwadkar earlier in the day.

To make matters worse, he had spent most of the afternoon retrieving balls from the boundary as Iyer and Yadav sent the Tamil Nadu bowlers on a leather-hunt.

And as play resumed, it was only a question of how long Yadav & Co will take to seal the deal. That Tamil Nadu still had a chance at turning this around didn’t even seem a logical thought. But logic was soon to be hit out of the park as inexplicably, the visitors started mounting an improbable comeback with who else but Rangarajan pulling the strings.

He started it off by dismissing Yadav with the very first ball of the third session, getting him caught by Baba Aparajith at leg-slip. It was a rather anticlimactic end to what had been an enterprising innings, where Mumbai’s batting mainstay had shown both composure and skill without really compromising on his natural aggression.

As he trudged off, he did seem to have done enough for his team to get to safety. Four wickets still remained, and the Mumbai lower-order had shown fight in the first innings. But then Rangarajan struck again this time removing the generally solid Dhawal Kulkarni, caught behind by Dinesh Karthik. The target still remained 28 runs away. But all of a sudden, Mumbai had only three wickets left. Rangarajan had kept up his word. His team was staying alive, and making life very difficult for the opposition.

Watching the mayhem from the non-striker’s end stood Ranji journeyman Abhishek Raut playing his first match for Mumbai. He eased some of the pressure with an audacious reverse-sweep off Rangarajan to reduce to target slightly before losing another partner as Shardul Thakur was cleaned-up by left-arm spinner Rahil Shah.

All of a sudden, it was Tamil Nadu who were in front as Mumbai needed 21 runs and now just two wickets in the bag. If the hosts had taken three full days to turn the tide, their resilient opposition had done so in a matter of five overs.

Next over, Raut charged Rangarajan and smashed him for a mighty six. It wasn’t the first time the ball had been air-lifted at the BKC on an eventful Sunday. Iyer had done so with disdain on a few occasions during his entertaining stay earlier in the day. All seemed well for Mumbai then, as Iyer took a special liking to the pace of M Mohammed, on-driving him aerially for two fours in one over before standing his ground and launching two length deliveries over the straight field in his next over. It was a tricky target that Mumbai were in pursuit of but Iyer had cruised his way to 50 off just 45 before cutting loose. A rather meek sweep shot is what would bring an end to his potentially match-winning knock.

Raut too fell while attempting a sweep, but his looked more purposeful but only ended in the hands of Aswin Crist at short fine-leg. Mumbai needed four runs, Tamil Nadu a solitary wicket. A calm and stress-free Sunday afternoon run-chase had now turned into a nail-biting thriller.

Dabholkar and Sandhu though would keep their nerve with the turbaned medium-pacer lifting a ball over the mid-on fielder and hastily completing a couple of runs, much to the delight and relief of a vociferous Mumbai dressing-room. The winning runs, as it turned out, came off who else but Rangarajan.

Brief Scores: Mumbai 294 (Lad 150, Mohammed 5-86) and 236 for 9 (Iyer 83, Yadav 58, Rahil 4-78) beat Tamil Nadu 434 (Karthik 167, Dabholkar 5-122) and 95 (Malolan 33, Dabholkar 7-53) by one wicket.