Mumbai, Jan 13: Tamil Nadu have won a place in the Ranji Trophy 2011-‘12 final on the basis of a gigantic first-innings lead thus crushing Mumbai’s hope of claiming the prestigious trophy for the 40th time.

Day 4 of the Mumbai versus Tamil Nadu semifinal at the Wankhede stadium turned out to be a mere formality; the visitors continued to pile on the runs after resuming on the overnight score of 220 for the loss of four wickets. Having found his rhythm in the tournament, Murali Vijay slammed 142 before being sent back by Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr). The opener was the only wicket to fall in the first session of the day.

The Mumbai bowlers toiled hard without any reward as the Tamil Nadu batsmen seemed to be practicing for their final against Rajasthan next week. Even as the lead grew to unattainable proportions, L Balaji showed no signs of declaring the innings. At lunch, TN led by 510 runs.

The second session produced more wickets for Mumbai but without any consequence. Sandhu, who had been the most successful bowler for the hosts in the first innings, claimed three more wickets post-lunch to complete another five-wicket haul and take his match tally to 10 wickets. The pacer removed R Prasanna, then uprooted Sunny Gupta’s leg-stump and followed it up with the wicket of the Tamil Nadu skipper. After hitting the ball straight back to the young Mumbai bowler, Balaji declared the innings for 331 runs bolstered by a 533-run lead and less than a day left in the game.

It was now the turn of the Tamil Nadu bowlers to hone their skills as Mumbai came out to bat. J Kaushik first claimed Kaustubh Pawar and later picked the wicket of Abhishek Nayar as the batsman tried to take the aerial route. Aushik Srinivas dismissed Surya Kumar Yadav towards the end of the match while Hiken Shah and Ankeet Chavan remained unbeaten as Mumbai’s quest for the coveted title came to an end.

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