When Mumbai met Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semi-final last year, the 41-time champions thrashed Abhinav Mukund and Co. by six wickets.Both teams will face each other again in a Ranji Trophy Group 'C' encounter at the Mumbai Cricket Association's (MCA) BKC ground today in what will be, like most Mumbai v TN games, a hard fought battle. Tamil Nadu have big guns like India Test off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and India opening batsman Murali Vijay in their ranks, while Mumbai have been bolstered by the return of skipper Aditya Tare, in-form batsman Shreyas Iyer, teenage sensation Prithvi Shaw and pacer Dhawal Kulkarni.
Tamil Nadu off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin bowls in the nets at MCA's Bandra Kurla Complex ground yesterday
Last season's runners-up Mumbai earned three vital points in a drawn match against Madhya Pradesh in their opening game of the season at Indore. During the nets session over the weekend, the Mumbai batsmen faced a battery of off-spinners to counter the guile of Ashwin and young off-spinner Washington Sundar. "We normally don't play against genuine off-spinners in the Ranji Trophy. You rarely get to see them. Most of them are left-arm spinners. To prepare for tomorrow's match we called a lot of offies to bowl at us. Washington Sunder bowls off-spin, so they have two offies," Tare said on the eve of the match yesterday.
Mumbai Ranji coach Sameer Dighe (right) shares a lighter moment with skipper Aditya Tare yesterday. Pics/Suresh Karkera
He admitted that though Ashwin is a terrific bowler, it won't be an issue for most of his players. "Many of our players play in the IPL. He played one of the one-day games two years ago, so we are not totally new to Ashwin. It's going to be a quality contest between Ashwin and our batters," added Tare. Mumbai look to be well prepared for Ashwin and TN skipper Mukund is expecting a special performance from their No. 1 bowler. "His inclusion in the side is a very big value addition. You can always rely on Ashwin to come up with something special considering the amount of wickets he has taken at the international level," said Mukund.
However, the pressure does not have to be on Ashwin. "As a captain, I don't look at one single player. It's about the team and not about any individual performances. Players are trying to play a higher grade of cricket and there are many from my team who have played a higher grade of cricket last season," he said.
