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Shri Vasudevadas is Tamil Nadu's hero

Sports Reporter

VITAL KNOCK: Shri Vasudevadas's 99 helped Tamil Nadu get past Mumbai's first-innings total.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu moved up to second place in the Ranji Trophy Super League Group ‘A' table after sealing first-innings points against Mumbai here on Saturday.

Day four's pivotal knock came from left-hander K. Shri Vasudevadas, who stitched a fifth-wicket stand of 115 with R. Sathish (44, 87b, 4x4) to ensure that the host passed Mumbai's 238 before falling for 99 (173b, 11x4).

Resuming with 89 still to get, the overnight pair went about their task in positive manner, rotating the strike with ease against Mumbai's spinners. Unusually, Sathish was the quieter of the two, eschewing his expansive on-the-up drives in favour of nudges and late glides behind the wicket.

Vasudevadas regularly went deep in his crease to cut or slash left-arm spinners Iqbal Abdulla and Harmeet Singh against the turn. He brought up his 50 with one such stroke for two and then took Tamil Nadu into the lead with another, this one timed a tad better to overcome the heavy outfield.

In between, Sathish became Ramesh Powar's 399th first class victim, steering a full and wide delivery from the off spinner uppishly to point.

Vasudevadas then stepped out to Powar and whipped him twice to the long-on fence to go from 90 to 98. A single off the next ball, the last of that over, brought him back on strike. But he wasn't to get his second first class hundred, Harmeet denying him with one that turned from outside off to bowl him through the gate.

Balaji sizzles

Mumbai was to remain on the field for a further 33.3 overs. C. Ganapathy and Suresh Kumar put on a dour 36 for the seventh wicket, before L. Balaji enlivened proceedings with a 56-ball 41, which included one four and four sweetly-struck sixes off the spinners.

The 18-year-old Harmeet took back positive returns from the match, adding three lower-order victims to the prize scalps of Badrinath and Vasudevadas, discovering perhaps a little late in the day that there was enough bite in the wicket if he tossed it up. Spearing the ball into the leg-side rough, Abdulla finished with three for 89 in 44.5 parsimonious overs.

The captains mutually decided to end the game just before the start of the mandatory overs, but not before the host scored a few more psychological points. S. Suresh Kumar, who had taken four wickets in the first innings, was similarly incisive in the second, dismissing both openers with his off breaks.

The scores:

Mumbai – 1st innings: 238.

Tamil Nadu – 1st innings: Abhinav Mukund lbw b Abdulla 13, S. Anirudha c Salvi b Abdulla 20, S. Badrinath c & b Harmeet 51, Dinesh Karthik b Nayar 19, K. Shri Vasudevadas b Harmeet 99, R. Sathish c Abdulla b Powar 44, C. Ganapathy c Jaffer b Harmeet 33, S. Suresh Kumar c Jaffer b Harmeet 11, L. Balaji b Abdulla 41, V. Arun Kumar c Rahane b Harmeet 1, R. Aushik Srinivas (not out) 0; Extras (lb-8, w-2, nb-5): 15; Total (in 123.5 overs): 347.

Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-54, 3-101, 4-117, 5-232, 6-266, 7-302, 8-305, 9-315.

Mumbai bowling: Salvi 13-4-33-0, Javed Khan 7-2-14-0, Abdulla 44.5-12-89-3, Powar 29-5-92-1, Harmeet 23-4-86-5, Nayar 7-0-25-1.

Mumbai – 2nd innings: S. Kukreja c Abhinav b Suresh 5, O. Gurav c & b Suresh 4, A. Rahane (not out) 3, P. Naik (not out) 1; Extras 0; Total (for two wickets in 15 overs): 13.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-9.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Balaji 3-1-5-0, Aushik 7-3-6-0, Suresh Kumar 5-4-2-2 .

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