Mumbai, May 05: Responsible batting by Sadagopan Ramesh (85) and Hemang Badani (batting on 45) helped Tamil Nadu finish the second day at a strong 223 for four in their first innings against Mumbai in the Ranji trophy cricket final at Wankhede stadium here today. After bowling out former champions Mumbai for 260 off the last ball of the very first over of the morning, Tamil Nadu themselves were in some sort of a bother losing their skipper S Suresh with just four runs on the board. However, the other opening batsman Ramesh, who was lucky to be dropped twice - first when on 15 by Mumbai skipper Paras Mhambrey off his own bowling and then by Ramesh Powar when on 28 off Mhambrey - bailed his team out with three fruitful partnerships. Initially, he added 68 runs for the second wicket with another southpaw S Sriram (26 off 82 balls) off 23 overs, then added 59 runs for the third wicket with S Badrinath (42 off 117 balls) and finally he added another 71 runs for the fourth wicket off 19.4 overs with Badani. Earlier, in the morning Tamil Nadu paceman L Balaji picked up the last wicket -- that of Avishkar Salvi -- for no score when he had the Indian pacer edging a catch to wicketkeeper Raaju while Vinayak Samant remained unbeaten on 17 as the hosts were all out for 260 off 91 overs.

At stumps on the second day, Tamil Nadu's most experienced batsman S Sharath (batting on ten) was giving company to Badani after Ajit Agarkar and Sairaj Bahutule had shared the four wickets to fall so far.

Bureau Report