Anmol Amol glitters

CHENNAI: ‘‘Appa more idli’’ was Vinod Kambli’s plea to the TNCA caterer at breakfast on Sunday. Boy was he hungry or what? The way he was middling the ball, it seemed that the lefthander was hungry for runs as well. But on 55 he played a poor stroke slashing S Badrinath to point and was caught by Shrinivas to end a promising innings.
Mumbai however had another batsman who was hungry.Amol Muzumdar, who had a disastrous last season batted like a champion to stay unbeaten on 119 (236 balls, 15x4; 1x6) and help Mumbai amass 513 for 5 against Tamil Nadu on day three of the Ranji Trophy final at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Sunday.
He got good support from skipper Sairaj Bahutule, whose industrious 64 not out proved crucial after Mumbai lost their way and were 382 for 5 after lunch. Muzumdar’s hundred was his 18th first-class hundred and his 13th in the Ranji Trophy. It was also his second ton in a Ranji final following his effort against Delhi in Gwalior in 1997.
Things were certainly going wrong for Mumbai as they lost Vinayak Mane and Wasim Jaffer in quick time to TN skipper S Suresh whose tactic of claiming the new ball paid rich dividends. Mane was adjudged caught behind for 106 and Jaffer was out to a brilliant low return catch for 133. Bhavin Thakkar and Manoj Joglekar were dismissed quickly and Mumbai looked to be in a spot of bother. But Bahutule and Muzumdar wrested back the initiative.
Chandrakant Pandit said the team’s tactics of going for the bowling in the last session helped. ‘‘We will declare after an hour tomorrow and try for an outright win,’’ said the Mumbai coach.
Tamil Nadu (1st innings) 294
Mumbai: (1st innings — overnight 236 for no loss): Vinayak Mane c Karthik b Suresh 106, Wasim Jaffer c and b Suresh 133, Bhavin Thakkar lbw b Ganapathy 9, Amol Mazumdar batting 119, Vinod Kambli c M Srinivas b Badrinath 55, Manoj Joglekar c Karthik b Badrinath 0, Sairaj Bahutule batting 64. Extras: (b-6, lb-3, w-1, nb-17) 27. Total: (for 5 wickets) 513.
Fall of wickets: 1-243, 2-257, 3-66, 4-379, 5-382. Bowling: Ganapathy 27-2-111-1, Srinivas 22-9-61-0, Ramkumar 35-7-103-0, Suresh 22-4-67-2, Sivaramakrishnan 34-5-92-0, Sriram 11-2-17-0, Badrinath 17-2-51-2, Badani 2-0-2-0.