Tamil Nadu enter Ranji Trophy final for 11th time

Tamil Nadu entered the Ranji Trophy final for the 11th time by virtue of the first innings lead over Mumbai in the semi-final that ended in a draw at the Wankhede stadium on Friday.

The visitors, who led the home team by 202 runs in the first innings, piled the agony on their long-time nemesis by notching 331 for 8 before declaring the second innings in the pre-lunch session.

Left with an improbable victory target of 534 in 44 overs, 39-time winners Mumbai scored 88 for 3 in 29 overs before the match was called off by mutual consent.

Tamil Nadu, who recorded their third straight success over Mumbai in as many seasons, advanced to the five-day final against defending champions Rajasthan (who had ousted them in the semis in 2010-11), to be held in Chennai from January 19.

Tamil Nadu have won the crown twice and finished runners-up on eight occasions, while Rajasthan, who defeated Haryana in the other semi-final, won the title for the first time when they beat Baroda in the final last season.

The last day's proceedings were bereft of any competitive interest after Tamil Nadu had bowled out Mumbai, who had got the better of them on 18 out of 22 previous clashes, for a meagre 157 on Thursday, in reply to their own first innings tally of 359.

They then scored 220 for 4 in the second innings by stumps to lead by 422 runs.

The visitors continued to grind Mumbai's bowlers on Friday morning after Murali Vijay, 103 overnight, and first-innings centurion Ramaswamy Prasanna, who was declared the man of the match, resumed.

 Scorecard

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 359

Mumbai (1st innings): 157

Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): (overnight 220-4)
A Mukund b Waingankar 42
M Vijay c Shah b Sandhu 142
S Badrinath b Chavan 23
D Karthik b Sandhu 4
K S Vasudevadas c Yadav b Waingankar 36
R Prasanna c Pawar b Sandhu 44
S Gupta b Sandhu 13
V Yo Mahesh not out 6
L Balaji c and b Sandhu 4
Extras{ (B-1, LB-7, NB-5, WB-4) 17
Total: (for 8 wkts decl, in 113.1 overs) 331

Fall of wickets: 1-90, 2-129, 3-134, 4-219, 5-268, 6-320, 7-321, 8-331

Bowling: D Kulkarni 10-4-24-0, B Sandhu 33.1-10-74-5, K Waingankar 29-7-86-2, A Nayar 2-0-14-0, R Powar 7-2-17-0, A Chavan 28-5-102-1, Yadav 1-1-0-0, K Pawar 3-1-3-0.

Mumbai (2nd innings):
K Pawar c Badrinath b Kaushik 0
A Nayar c Gupta b Kaushik 22
H Shah not out 29
S Yadav c Prasanna b Srinivas 33
A Chavan not out 1
Extras: (LB-3) 3
Total: (for 3 wkts, in 29 overs) 88

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-25, 3-79

Bowling: J Kaushik 4-2-6-2, V Yo Mahesh 3-0-18-0, S Gupta 7-1-26-0, A Srinivas 11-3-27-1, Vijay 4-1-8-0.