CHENNAI: Patience is an important virtue in batting, more so when you are trying to climb a mountain. That went missing, as yet another shoddy display left Tamil Nadu staring at a setback on Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai on Monday.
From 178 for two chasing Mumbai’s 488, Tamil Nadu lost five wickets in the space of 17 runs in the second session. The implosion left them at 195 for seven and despite Ravichandran Ashwin and R Sai Kishore preventing further damage for the remaining 32 overs, 249 for seven at stumps means Mumbai remain favourites to bag three points.
Barring Kaushik Gandhi, who made 60, none of the batsmen applied themselves. In fact, they caved in without a fight. The reason for the collapse was lack of patience and poor shot selection.
“Although the wicket getting slower, during that phase (second session) nothing happened. We bowled good spells from both ends and created pressure. We took two brilliant catches and there was tight bowling. That rewarded us with five wickets,’’ said Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare.
“We expected one or two partnerships. This is a sort of a wicket where if a batsman gets settled, it will be difficult to get him out. But once a player gets out, it will be difficult for the new man. To take seven wickets in 90 overs and give away just 180-odd runs was a phenomenal effort.”
Tamil Nadu’s collapse had nothing to do with the pitch. After lunch, B Aparajith was trapped in front by Tushar Deshpande and this opened the floodgates. Opener L Suryapprakash had fallen to a loose shot earlier and youngster Pradosh Ranjan Paul too paid for impetuosity when the situation demanded caution. B Indrajith was brilliantly caught by Jay Bista in the slips. Dinesh Karthik at No 7 was the last recognised batsman and it was baffling to see such an experienced player go forward without moving his body to the pitch of the ball and edge a regulation catch behind the stumps.
This has been a feature of Tamil Nadu’s batting this season. It has everything to do with mindset and a lack of application. “It had nothing to do with the pitch. We didn’t apply ourselves. We are still figuring it out how we can do better. The key is to have two or three partnerships,” said Gandhi.
Mumbai coach Vinayak Samant lauded Tare’s captaincy. “He was proactive. The ball was swinging a bit and Tare made the right changes to maintain pressure.” It doesn’t augur well for Tamil Nadu.
Group A | In Ongole: Hyderabad 225 & 45/3 (Vijay 3/8) vs Andhra 489/8 decl (Shinde 94, Bhui 69, Vihari 55; Hasan 3/150, Milind 2/87, Kiran 2/92). In Trivandrum: Kerala 227 & 136 (Kaul 5/39, Mann 4/45) bt Punjab 218 & 124 (Saxena 7/51, Joseph 2/37). Pts: Kerala 6, Punjab 0.
Group B | In Rajkot: Saurashtra 581/7 decl vs Karnataka 171 (Samarth 63, Pravin 46 n.o; Unadkat 5/49, Makwana 3/27) & 30/0. In Chennai: Mumbai 488 vs Tamil Nadu 249/7 (Gandhi 60, Abhinav 58; Dias 2/34, Deshpande 2/47, Mulani 2/59).
Group C | In Lahli: Haryana 90 & 248 (Pradhan 5/86, Rajesh 2/50) vs Odisha 160 & 147/7 (Chahal 6/65).
Plate | In Puducherry: Goa 270 & 229/5 (Kauthankar 64 n.o, Snell 60; Trivedi 2/48) vs Pondicherry 260.