A lost-and-found story from Bollywood

Hemang Badani waged a lone battle scoring a valiant 109 (his 7th in Ranji and second this season) that spoke volumes of his temperament. His effort, however, came a little too late for the visitors as the side requiring 377 to win and resuming the day at 102 for 3 was dismissed for 235 — twenty-three minutes before the scheduled tea break.

An elated Mumbai skipper Paras Mhambrey said the victory was a result of sustained hard work. ‘‘This year we had decided to win the trophy any how and as a team we believed in ourselves. We showed a lot of character. It’s a moment to cherish for all of us.’’

Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit termed the final as ‘‘great’’ and a ‘‘see-saw battle’’. He said Hemang Badani was determination personified and ‘‘at one stage we felt that he may take the match away from us. He is a quality player who didn’t wilt under pressure.’’

Crediting the success to Mumbaikars, Pandit said ‘‘faith and belief’’ were the key to success.

Tamil Nadu coach Bharath Arunkumar said his team lost the match on the third day of the match. ‘‘We failed to take the initiative and allowed Mumbai to make a comeback. But they deserve credit for making the turnaround.’’ So long as Badani braved the odds, Tamil Nadu had hope but with wickets being scooped off from the other end it was only a matter of time before the hosts had a party.

Leggie Sairaj Bahutule (5-70) and off-spinner Ramesh Powar (3-57) made life miserable for the Tamil Nadu batsmen. The former being the dangerman extracting sharp turn and bounce from the day five track which Badani later termed as ‘‘it’s still a good wicket to bat on.’’

Bahutule’s hi-five also game him a match haul of 8 for 129. To add to the former India spinner’s guiles was the big pressure that turned the tables on Tamil Nadu.

Despite the lack of support, Badani battled his way playing both spin and pace with relative ease. The southpaw bade his time and drilled ten fluent fours to prove a point.

Reaching his century with a superb reverse sweep (he swept three hits to the fence) the player raised his arms to a standing ovation from a 1000-odd spectators. Badani then turned the bat upside down to signal a gesture towards the dressing room that raised a few eyebrows.

The Badani show was all Tamil Nadu could offer and when the lanky batsman’s attempt to clear the field ended with Nishit Shetty at widish long-on, it was all over.

In the morning, Powar had S Badrinath caught at forward short leg to open the floodgates. Bahutule then trapped S Sharath, M R Shrinivas and R Raaju leg before with the ones that kept straight. S J Gokulakrishnan delayed the inevitable for a while but ended in sweeping one into the hands of Shetty at backward square leg.

D Dhandapani refused to believe that his catch to Vinayak Mane at forward short leg had gone off the bat and stood his ground. But the umpire felt so and the Mumbaites could hardly wait to celebrate the ‘big’ win.