Discarded India Test wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik stroked his way to a superb unbeaten 98 to stand tall among the ruins as Tamil Nadu were poised to concede a huge first innings lead to Mumbai on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' match in Mumbai on Monday.
Karthik, ignored for the upcoming tour of Pakistan with Parthiv Patel gaining the selectors' nod, struck form with the bat for the first time in the season to help the visitors end the day at 208 for 8.
At stumps, the 20-year-old right hander was unconquered after a stay of 136 minutes during which he faced 111 balls and hit 15 boundaries and a six. His unbroken ninth wicket partnership with G Vignesh (2) was worth 41 runs and propelled his team forward from 167 for 8.
Tamil Nadu were adrift of Mumbai's first innings total of 430 by 222 runs at close on day two. Ramesh Powar, with his lopping off breaks, was the most successful Mumbai bowler with a haul of 3 for 84, while Avishkar Salvi and Abhishek Nair claimed two wickets each.
Earlier, the home team added 58 runs to their overnight score before being dismissed for 430. Overnight not out batsman Nishit Shetty was out for 77, inclusive of 12 boundaries.
For Tamil Nadu, Vignesh picked up three wickets with his bustling medium pace while six other wickets were shared equally by T Kumaran, S Naresh and S Vidyut.
Scoreboard:
Mumbai 1st innings
S Kukreja lbw b Vignesh 4
V Samant c Karthik b Kumaran 13
W Jaffer c Badrinath b Vidyut 162
A Muzumdar c Karthik b Vignesh 39
V Indulkar c Karthik b Kumaran 36
N Shetty c Badrinath b Kapoor 77
R Powar c Sriram b Vignesh 8
A Nair b Naresh 21
N Kulkarni c Karthik b Naresh 16
S Hazare not out 2
A Salvi st Karthik b Vidyut 1
Extras (lb 12, w 6, nb 33) 51
Total (all out in 109.2 overs) 430
Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-27, 3-127, 4-248, 5-311, 6-329, 7-400, 8-424, 9-429, 10-430.
Bowling: Kumaran 26-4-110-2, Vignesh 24-4-107-3, Naresh 22-4-59-2, Kapoor 21-1-69-1, Vidyut 4.2-0-25-2, Sriram 10-1-37-0, Badrinath 2-0-11-0.
Tamil Nadu 1st innings
S Vidyut c Jaffer b Powar 8
C Hemanth Kumar b Salvi 0
S Sriram c Kulkarni b Powar 14
S Badrinath c Samant b Nair 21
H Badani c Jaffer b Powar 28
S Sharath b Nair 5
D Karthik not out 98
R Naresh c Samant b Salvi 10
A Kapoor c Samant b Hazare 2
G Vignesh not out 2
Extras (b 4, lb 3, w 1, nb 12) 20
Total (for 8 wickets in 68 overs) 208
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-23, 3-28, 4-61, 5-85, 6-91, 7-142, 8-167.
Bowling: A Salvi 15-5-25-2, S Hazare 9-2-26-1, R Powar 27-7-84-3, A Nair 10-0-38-2, N Kulkarni 7-2-28-0.