Teenager Prithvi Shaw entered the record books with a fearless hundred on First Class debut that helped Mumbai stroll into its 46th Ranji Trophy final with a six-wicket win over Tamil Nadu at the Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium on Thursday.
Shaw’s 120 — the 16th occasion and 13th in Ranji Trophy of a Mumbai batsman marking his First Class debut with a hundred —enabled Mumbai overhaul the target of 251 just before the rescheduled Tea break and set up a grand finale against Gujarat.
Start delayed
When Shaw, just 17, strode out to the middle along with the left-handed Praful Waghela, almost double his age, the duo first had to deal with the moisture in the wicket, thanks to a fog cover that delayed the start of the proceedings by 35 minutes.
But, the right-hander looked in his element. Shaw caressed A. Aswin Crist off the backfoot in the second over of the day. Four over later, he drove the lanky medium-pacer through the covers, off the front-foot this time, twice in an over.
With Waghela also scoring freely at the other end, Shaw continued to pile on the pressure on Tamil Nadu.
Unsettling the bowlers
He did not hesitate to play cross-batted strokes against R. Aushik Srinivas’s left-arm spin. Neither did he spare a moment to unsettle all the other TN bowlers. It reflected in his swing over the long-on boundary off B. Aparajith’s first over of the morning.
Soon afterwards, a top-edged boundary off Vijay Shankar’s medium-pace fetched him his first fifty. After losing Waghela — who top-edged a sweep off Aparajith — Shaw matched Shreyas Iyer shot for shot.
The duo’s quickfire partnership ensured that Mumbai would not suffer any middle-order hiccups. Soon after entering the 90s, Shaw slog-swept Aushik for a boundary to move to 97. In the next over, however, Shreyas played on to Vijay Shankar.
Reprieve
In Vijay Shankar’s next over, Shaw, on 99, tried to steer Vijay Shankar past Indrajith at gully but only offered a catch to the fielder. However, he got a second life as the umpires checked for a no-ball, and replays showed Vijay Shankar did not have any part of his foot behind the line.
Four balls later, Shaw tapped the same bowler to point for a single and took his helmet off, with his boyish face lit up with a wide smile.
Shaw’s exuberance did not see him through to the winning moment. A top-edged swat off Aushik ending with T. Natarajan taking an impressive catch running back from mid-wicket, when Mumbai required just 10 runs to win.
But, by then Shaw had done his job.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 305.
Mumbai — 1st innings: 411.
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: 356 for six decl.
Mumbai — 2nd innings: Prithvi Shaw c Natarajan b Aushik 120, Praful Waghela c Vijay Shankar b Aparajith 36, Shreyas Iyer b Vijay Shankar 40, Suryakumar Yadav c Abhinav b Aushik 34, Aditya Tare (not out) 4, Siddhesh Lad (not out) 1; Extras (b-8, lb-1, nb-7): 16; Total (for four wkts. in 62.1 overs): 251.
Fall of wickets: 1-90, 2-181, 3-238, 4-241.
Tamil Nadu bowling: R. Aushik Srinivas 23-7-73-2, T. Natarajan 6-2-17-0, B. Aparajith 8.1-0-58-1, K. Vignesh 9-2-27-0, A. Aswin Crist 3-0-18-0, Vijay Shankar 10-3-30-1, V. Ganga Sridhar Raju 3-0-19-0.
Man-of-the-match: Prithvi Shaw.
Mumbai won by six wickets .
