RAJKOT/NAGPUR: Skipper Aditya Tare once again played captain’s knock to rescue defending champions from the precarious position in the semifinal of the Ranji Trophy tournament against Tamil Nadu on Tuesday here at Rajkot.

In the second semifinal match being played at Nagpur’s VCA stadium, Jharkhand takes crucial 18 runs lead against Gujarat.

At close of third day game, Mumbai made 406 in reply to Tamil Nadu’s 305, while in the second semifinal, Gujarat scored 100 for loss of four wickets after Jharkhand first innings was bundled out at 408 in reply to Gujarat’s 390.

Tare’s 83 runs knock not only helped Mumbai to recover from early jolts, but put his team in command as Mumbai took healthy 101 runs first inning lead.

Tare was ably supported by Nayar (58) and Thakur (52) as Mumbai made 406 in their first innings in reply to Tamil Nadu's 305 before being bowled out at stumps on the third day of the five-day marque encounter.

For Tamil Nadu, right-arm medium pacer Vijay Shankar turned out to be the pick of the bowlers for his side with figures of four for 59 from 20 overs. Shankar got good support from Baba Aparajith who picked up two crucial wickets of Nayar and Thakur with his off-spin bowling.

In the second semifinal, Jharkhand gained the upper hand as they reduced Gujarat to 100 for four in their second innings after taking a first innings lead with a total of 408 all out.

Resuming the day at 214-5, Jharkhand were lifted by overnight unbeaten batsman Ishank Jaggi (129), who shared a 97-run seventh wicket stand with Kaushal Singh (53) as the first time semi-finalists moved past Gujarat’s first innings total of 390.

Trailing by 18 runs, Gujarat were troubled by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who picked up three wickets for 36 runs. At stumps, Gujarat were 100-4, with a lead of 82 runs.

ABHINAV, TN FINED FOR SLOW OVER-RATE

Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund has been fined 100% of his match fee for slow over-rate, while his team-mates have been docked 50%.

After accounting for stoppages, match referee Sunil Chaturvedi and on-field umpires Virender Sharma and Abhijit Deshmukh found that Tamil Nadu were two overs short during Mumbai's first innings. This was Tamil Nadu's fourth over-rate offence this season.

BRIEF SCORES

MUMBAI 406 (Tare 83, Suryakumar 73, Nayar 58, Shardul 52, Shankar 4-59) lead TAMIL NADU 305 (Indrajith 64, Shankar 50, Gandhi 50, Nayar 4-66, Thakur 4-75) by 101 runs.

GUJARAT 390 and 100 for 4 (Juneja 2*, Patel 0*, Nadeem 3-36) lead JHARKHAND 408 (Jaggi 129, Kishan 61, Kaushal 53, RP Singh 6-90) by 82 runs.

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