Tamil Nadu restrict Mumbai

At stumps Tendulkar, who started in blazing fashion by slamming three fours in the first over he faced, was unbeaten after a watchful stay of over 100 minutes along with Vinod Kambli (8) who came in to bat out the last three overs.

The batsmen out in the home team’s first innings were opener Dighe, who batted for 231 minutes and struck six fours and a six in his 163-ball essay, Wasim Jaffer (12), Jatin Paranjpe (15) and night watchman Rajesh Pawar (1).

Off-spinner Ashish Kapoor picked up two of the four wickets to fall while medium-pacers Sadagopan Mahesh and Thiru Kumaran bagged a wicket each.

Earlier, Mumbai pacemen Santosh Saxena and Ajit Agarkar brought an end to the visitors’ first innings in the first over after lunch with some aggressive bowling.

Saxena bagged two of the six wickets to fall to finish with 3 for 99 while Agarkar claimed three to finish with 4 for 83. Abey Kuruvilla got the other wicket.

Mumbai’s best hope in the morning, after allowing the Tamil Nadu batsmen make merry on Tuesday, was to break the fifth-wicket partnership between centurions Hemang Badani and Robin Singh first thing in the morning.

Saxena was their man of the hour when he trapped Badani leg before to a ball which kept low in the second over of the morning after the visitors had added only six runs to their overnight score.

Badani, who failed to add any run to his last evening’s score of 162, and Robin put on 254 runs for the fifth-wicket which may prove to be a match-winning one.

Wicket-keeper Rueben Paul struck Saxena for a couple of splendid off-driven fours before being yorked by the same bowler for a quickfire 20.

But Mumbai’s hopes of ending the innings quickly were blunted by Sadagopan Mahesh’s sensible batting with Robin who stood like a rock at the other end.

The seventh-wicket duo put on 50 runs to take the total to 474 before Agarkar came on for a new spell and sent back Mahesh (14 in 81 minutes), Kapoor (0) and D Gokulakrishnan in quick succession before lunch taken with Tamil Nadu on 484 for 9.

Kuruvilla, who looked listless throughout, finally got awicket by castling last man Kumaran to leave Robin stranded on a career-high 183 in 376 minutes, off 237 balls (18 fours and 5 sixes).

The India left hander had commenced the day at 142. His previous best score of 152 had been notched against Punjab in 1987-88.

Scoreboard

Tamil Nadu (1st innings; overnight 397 for 4): S Sriram c Dighe b Agarkar 2, S Ramesh run out 44, H Badani lbw Saxena 162, J Madangopal C Dighe b Saxena 4, S Sharath c Muzumdar b Powar 12, Robin Singh not out 183, R Paul b Saxena 20, S Mahesh b Agarkar 14, A Kapoor c Dighe b Agarkar 0, D Gokulakrishnan c Pawar b Agarkar 1, T Kumaran b Kuruvilla 5; Extras (b10, lb17, nb9, wb2) 38; Total (all out in 121.4 overs) 485
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-97, 3-108, 4-149, 5-403, 6-424, 7-474, 8-474, 9-476.

Bowling: Agarkar 29-7-83-4; Saxena 22-1-91-3; Kuruvilla 29.4-6-99-1; Tendulkar 10-0-46-0; Powar 17-2-74-1; Pawar 14-2-65-0.

Mumbai (1st innings): S Dighe c Paul b Mahesh 55, W Jaffer c Ramesh b Kapoor 12, J Paranjpe c Kapoor b Kumaran 15, S Tendulkar batting 34, R Pawar c Madanagopal b Kapoor 1, V Kambli batting 8; Extras (b5, lb4, nb7) 16. Total (for 4 wkts, in 57 overs) 141.
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-77, 3-120, 4-127

Bowling: Kumaran 8-3-29-1, Mahesh 12-1-33-1, Gokulakrishnan 11-5-15-0, Kapoor 17-4-44-2, Robin Singh 7-4-5-0, Sriram 2-0-6-0.