Ranji Trophy: Mumbai dominate on Day 1 against Tamil Nadu at MCA Cricket Ground

Close on the heels of his century effort as a No 11 batsman against Baroda Mumbai pacer Tushar Deshpande decided itrsquos a good time to strike early in his spell with the red cherry He did so with three wickets to put Mumbai on top in their Ranji Trophy semifinal against Tamil Nadu at the MCABKC ground on SaturdayClearly Day One of the tie belonged to the 41time champions who shot out the opposition for 146 At stumps the hosts were 45 for the loss of Prithvi Shaw and Bhupen LalwaniDeshpandersquos 324 included three of TNrsquos top five batsmenmdashPradosh Ranjan Paul captain Sai Kishore and Baba IndrajithAlso Read Gritty Madhya Pradesh eye formidable outing against hosts VidarbhaEarly breakthroughTN skipper Sai Kishore decided to bat on a grassy pitch and immediately faced the consequences when openers Sai Sudharsan 0 and Narayan Jagadeesan 4 were back in the dressing room by the sixth over International pacer Shardul Thakur 248 trapped Sudharsan leg before in the dayrsquos very first over before Jagadeesan misjudged pacer Mohit Avasthirsquos 123 length and offered an easy catch to short leg fielder Musheer KhanOnedrop Paul 8 opened his and the teamrsquos account with a four a welltimed flick off Thakur on the very first ball he facedHowever he didnrsquot last long as Deshpande who was introduced in the ninth over as first change held on to a caught and bowled chance in his first overKishore 1 who played a patient knock of 60 off 144 balls against Saurashtra at No3 in the quarterfinal at Coimbatore was sent at No4 and took 10 balls to open his account He failed to counter Deshpandersquos fuller length delivery only to see his stumps uprooted By the 17th over TN had lost their most experienced batsman Indrajith 11 who is playing his 75th firstclass game with the scoreboard reading 425His attempt to hit a Deshpande delivery through the midwicket region failed and Tanush Kotian took a splendid diving catch in front of him at short midwicketIt looked like the hosts would bowl out TN inside 100 but two India allroundersmdashVijay Shankar 44 8x4 and Washington Sundar 43 5x4 stitched a partnership of 48 runs the highest stand of the innings Vijay Shankar was dismissed by Thakur for 44 while Sundar fell to offspinner Tanush Kotian 210 Musheer claimed 218 with his leftarm spinlsquoWe bowled in the right channelsrsquoA delighted Deshpande said ldquoWe wanted to bowl first because the wicket had enough for the pace bowlers We bowled in the right channels rather than individual bowling strengthsrdquoMusheer 24 not out 3x4 and nightwatchman Mohit Avasthi 1 not out played a good hand for Mumbai towards the end of the dayBrief scoresTN 146 all out V Shankar 44 W Sundar 43 T Deshpande 324 T Kotian 210 M Khan 218 S Thakur 248 v Mumbai 452 M Khan 24