Tamil Nadu were trailing by 515 runs in the second innings with seven wickets in hand at the end of fourth day’s play, chasing a Karnataka’s first innings lead of 628. Batting for over two days, the defending champions were propelled to 762 by Karun Nair’s record-breaking 328-run knock before being bowled out earlier in the morning. During the fifth over of the day, Nair flicked L Balaji to backward square-leg for a single and surpassed Gul Mohammad’s 319 (for Baroda vs Holkar’s in 1946-47) to post the highest individual score in a Ranji Trophy final. Resuming on 310 in the morning Nair continued patiently. He also became only the third batsman to cross the 300-run mark at the Wankhede Stadium in Ranji Trophy behind Sanjay Manjrekar (377 for Mumbai vs Hyderabad in 1990-91) and Sunil Gavaskar (340 for Mumbai vs Bengal in 1981-82). The 23-year old middle-order batsman’s marathon innings was eventually halted by Vijay Shankar who trapped him lbw and also ended the eighth-wicket partnership for 142 between him and Vinay Kumar. However, Karnataka’s run-making continued as Vinay Kumar led the way with a century. Sreenath Aravind was the next to post a half-century in the run-fest. He pulled Crist over mid-wicket to get there. However, a couple of deliveries later he departed hitting the bowler to backward short-leg where substitute Shahrukh Khan took a sharp catch. HS Sharath then ably supported his captain, who was inching towards the three-figure mark. A while later, Vinay slammed Balaji over long-off for six and took the mammoth lead past 600 as they continued to bat on. With nine wickets gone, the session was extended by half-an-hour and the Vinay-Sharath pair continued to chip away at the bowling. When Lunch was taken, the Karnataka captain was three runs short of century with the team on 748 for nine. It was on the fifth ball of the second session that Vinay pulled Shankar to the fence to reach his hundred. En-route to his century, the all-rounder had completed 2000 runs in first-class cricket. Karnataka’s first innings ended a couple of overs later with Sharath being stumped off Rangarajan for eight. Abhinav Mukund and Murali Vijay then took guard in the afternoon to begin Tamil Nadu’s second innings. And with 30 runs on board, they lost their skipper to Shreyas Gopal. While looking to cut the leg-spinner, Mukund found his middle-stump knocked back. With Baba Aparajith at the other end Vijay then took the side to Tea at 37 for one. TN’s woes continued in the final session of the day. In the fifth over post tea, Murali Vijay was out lbw to Vinay Kumar. 32 runs later, Indrajith departed edging the ball to Vinay in the slips. Aparajith (36) and Shankar (15) were at the wicket for Tamil Nadu at stumps with the team score on 113 for 3. Brief scores: End of Day 1: TN 1st inn 134 all out in 62.4 overs (A Mukund 35, Vinay Kumar 5/34, A Mithun 3/54); Karnataka 1st inn 45/4 in 14 overs (A Mithun 14*, L Balaji 3/10) End of Day 2: Karnataka 1st inn 323/5 in 99 overs (Karun Nair 130*, KL Rahul 131*) End of Day 3: Karnataka 1st inn 618/7 in 189 overs (Karun Nair 310*, KL Rahul 188, R Vinay Kumar 41*) End of Day 4: Karnataka 1st inn 762 all out in 231.2 overs (Karun Nair 328, R Vinay Kumar 105*); TN 2nd inn 113/3 in 40 overs (Aparajith 36*, Vijay Shankar 15*)