Kulkarni and Kothari's four-fors seal Mumbai's quarter-final berth
Tamil Nadu’s bowlers leave them with chance of an outright win, and MP made to wait in search of one after Odisha’s batsmen grind it out
ESPNcricinfo staff27-Nov-2017
ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Mumbai bowlers Dhawal Kulkarni and Karsh Kothari, and opener Prithvi Shaw sealed their knockout berth in style by crushing Tripura by 10 wickets on the third evening at Wankhede Stadium. After declaring overnight on 421 for 8 with a lead of 226, Mumbai bowled out Tripura in 78 overs with four wickets apiece from Kulkarni and Kothari. Set a target of 63, Mumbai belted out the runs in 6.2 overs with a 26-ball 50 from Shaw.Tripura saw a couple of partnerships flourish once Kulkarni struck in his second over to remove opener Samrat Singha for 7. Bishal Ghosh (38) and Udiyan Bose (34) stitched a stand of 65, but Kulkarni had Bose caught at the score of 76 and Akash Parkar bowled Ghosh eight runs later. Smit Patel (68) and Yashpal Singh (82) struck fifites with a century stand and gave Tripura some hopes by rallying the score past 200. However, Jay Bista’s offspin broke the stand and Kothari struck on consecutive deliveries to leave them reeling on 222 for 6.No. 8 Rajat Dey counter-attacked with a 21-ball 30 even as Kothari had Yashpal stumped and Kulkarni returned to wipe out the tail and bowl them out for 288. Mumbai’s openers Shaw and Bista – whose ages add up to only 39 – came out with a T20 mentality and Shaw struck eight fours in his fifty while Bista was unbeaten on 13 off 12 to score at over 10 runs per over together that earned them seven points.Tamil Nadu’s bowlers fought back to leave them with a chance of picking up an outright win after conceding the first-innings lead to Baroda in Vadodara. Tamil Nadu had ended the second day on 226 for 5 in response to Baroda’s 309. But they lost five wickets for 48 runs on the third day to be bowled out for 274. Both B Indrajith and J Kousik were dismissed for their respective overnight scores of 59 and 37 as Tamil Nadu lost three wickets for 10 runs. Yo Mahesh and Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore added 38 for the ninth wicket. Mahesh was dismissed for 26, while Sai Kishore remained not out on 17. Lukman Meriwala led a collective effort from Baroda’s bowlers with 3 for 37.Baroda lost half their side inside 25 overs of their second innings, with just 68 on the board. Swapnil Singh (49) and Atit Sheth (40) lifted them with a 66-run sixth-wicket stand. But despite their efforts, and Kartik Kakade’s 33 at No. 9, Baroda folded for 197. Tamil Nadu’s pace duo of M Mohammed and K Vignesh combined to take six wickets between them. Tamil Nadu’s openers N Jagadeesan and Abhinav Mukund, their captain, saw off the two overs to stumps. Tamil Nadu require 231 runs and Baroda need 10 wickets on the final day for a win. However, an outright win won’t do for either team, as they need other results to go their way to make the quarterfinals.Odisha were still trailing Madhya Pradesh after a laboured third day in Indore, where they scored just 219 runs in 90 overs.Odisha had conceded a huge first-innings lead of 241 runs on the second day and ended it on 18 for no loss. By stumps on the third day, they were 237 for 4, requiring four more runs to wipe out the deficit. Odisha lost Ranjit Singh and their captain Govinda Poddar in the space of 10 overs following a 70-run opening stand. Rajesh Dhuper and Subhranshu Senapati, the promising 20-year old batsman, then buckled down for a third-wicket partnership of 120. Having stoically resisted for most of the day, Odisha lost two wickets in the final hour; first Dhuper fell for 88 to the medium-pacer Puneet Datey before Biplab Samantray followed him after 1 off six balls. Senapati held firm till stumps and was on 78, with Shantanu Mishra on 10 for company. Odisha are out of the race to the knockouts. Mumbai’s win has left MP needing nothing short of an outright win. Currently third, a win will take MP straight to the top of the table.