With the October heat at its peak, the Met department had forecast a heatwave in Mumbai on Monday. At the Wankhede Stadium, it was Tushar Deshpande who turned up the heat on Chandigarh on the second day of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy opener.

If Deshpande’s cameo with the bat (44, 47b, 4×4, 2×6) laid the foundation for a trademark Mumbai lower-order resistance, he was venomous with the cherry after tea. His opening burst of 7-1-17-5, which included Mumbai’s sixth hat-trick in First Class cricket, dismantled Chandigarh’s batting line-up.

Chasing Mumbai’s daunting 429, Chandigarh was bowled out for a paltry 78 in just 115 balls, its second-lowest total. With time for only one over before stumps, Deshpande struck again, dismissing nightwatcher Vishu Kashyap to leave Mumbai needing just nine wickets to begin the season with a comprehensive victory.

It took the 31-year-old four overs to strike, but his sixth over of the innings — the 11th overall — proved decisive. A short ball forced Arjun Azad into a miscued pull, with Sylvester D’Souza completing a safe catch at long leg. The next delivery straightened to beat Shivam Bhambri’s defence and crash into the stumps. Dipender Kush then edged a length ball that rose on him, allowing Yashasvi Jaiswal to take a catch at first slip and complete a memorable hat-trick.

Deshpande completed his sixth First Class five-wicket haul in the following over. Had it not been for Nishunk Birla’s lusty blows, Chandigarh might have failed to better its lowest total of 57.

Earlier, Deshpande’s clean hitting had helped Mumbai wrest back control after Raj Bawa briefly threatened to derail the hosts. Bawa removed captain Siddhesh Lad (86, 192b, 9×4), bowled by an inswinger, and Shams Mulani (39, 68b, 4×4, 1×6), adjudged caught down the leg side, in the opening hour to reduce Mumbai to 271 for seven.

The last three wickets, however, added 158 runs. Deshpande’s aggression, Tanush Kotian’s 58 (91b, 5×4) and Mohit Avasthi’s 56 n.o. (119b, 6×4, 2×6) took Mumbai to 429 and left Chandigarh to toil in the heat for two sessions.

By tea, the visitors had been worn down. Deshpande ensured they would have little respite thereafter.

The scores: Mumbai – 1st innings: Yashasvi Jaiswal c Bhambri b Jagjit 0, Ayush Mhatre b Dhanda 48, Musheer Khan c Rana b Dhanda 65, Siddhesh Lad b Bawa 86, Sarfaraz Khan lbw b Dhanda 1, Akash Anand c Arslan b Birla 22, Shams Mulani c Rana b Bawa 39, Tanush Kotian c Kush b Dhanda 58, Tushar Deshpande c Bhambri b Bawa 44, Mohit Avasthi (not out) 56, Sylvester D’Souza lbw b Bawa 1; Extras (b-1, lb-2, nb-5, w-1): 9; Total (in 136.5 overs): 429.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-77, 3-142, 4-144, 5-184, 6-258, 7-271, 8-342, 9-409.

Chandigarh bowling: Jagjit 27-5-88-1, Dhanda 26-7-78-4, Bawa 21.5-6-73-4, Birla 37-1-118-1, Kashyap 23-0-63-0, Azad 2-0-6-0.

Chandigarh – 1st innings: Arslan Khan b Deshpande 2, Arjun Azad c D’Souza b Deshpande 20, Manan Vohra b D’Souza 2, Shivam Bhambri b Deshpande 0, Dipender Kush c Jaiswal b Deshpande 0, Raj Bawa lbw b Deshpande 0, Akshit Rana b Avasthi 9, Vishu Kashyap lbw b Avasthi 7, Nishunk Birla c Anand b D’Souza 33, Jagjit Singh Sandhu c Jaiswal b Avasthi 0, Rohit Dhanda (not out) 2; Extras (lb-1, w-2): 3, Total (in 19.1 overs) 78.

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-25, 3-25, 4-25, 5-25, 6-29, 7-37, 8-59, 9-76.

Mumbai bowling: Deshpande 7-1-17-5, Avasthi 6-3-9-3, D’Souza 6.1-0-51-2.

Chandigarh – 2nd innings: Vishu Kashyap b Deshpande 0, Arjun Azad (batting) 0, Arslan Khan (batting) 0; Total (for one wkt. in one over) 0.

Fall of wicket: 1-0.

Mumbai bowling: Deshpande 1-1-0-1.

Published – October 12, 2026 07:40 pm IST

Mumbai team celebrate after fall of a wicket during the Ranji trophy semifinals against Tamil Nadu in Mumbai on March 2, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

Tushar Deshpande (3/24) and Shardul Thakur (2/48) starred with the ball to put Mumbai on top following a meek display from Tamil Nadu on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy semifinal in Mumbai on March 2.

Tamil Nadu skipper B Sai Kishore’s decision to bat first backfired as the visitors were shot out for a mere 146 in the first innings with Deshpande and Thakur making life miserable for the visiting batters at the BKC Ground.

If it was any consolation, Tamil Nadu struck twice with the ball but Mumbai shaved off a significant chunk of first-innings deficit, reaching 45/2 at stumps to trail by another 101 runs.

Musheer Khan (24 not out) and nightwatchman Mohit Avasthi (1) were at the crease with Mumbai losing openers Prithvi Shaw (5) and Bhupen Lalwani (15).

Shaw fell early against Kuldeep Sen while Sai Kishore trapped Lalwani for the second wicket, but Mumbai remained on top.

On a track which had movement off the surface as well as turn for spinners, Mumbai proved to be the superior side given their bowlers extracted more support and their batters did not find getting runs as tough as the visitors.

Tamil Nadu, shellshocked by a disastrous start to their first semifinal in seven years, could not muster the courage to stage a fightback and folded shortly after tea despite Vijay Shankar (44) and Washington Sundar’s (43) rearguard act.

The horror began when B Sai Sudharsan was trapped leg-before on the fourth ball of the match by Shardul Thakur and it did not take long for the Mumbai bowlers to get all over the Tamil Nadu side in the first hour.

Mumbai bowlers exploited the early moisture with the new ball to perfection as Mohit Avasthi had TN’s leading run-maker N Jagadeesan (4) caught at short leg by Musheer Khan.

Coming in as first change, Deshpande remained unplayable throughout the innings for the Tamil Nadu batters.

Pradosh Ranjan Paul’s bat curled in his hands as he hit one straight to Despande, who took a fine return catch for the third wicket.

It was a brave call for skipper R Sai Kishore to promote himself ahead of the dependable Baba Indrajith but one that did not work.

Sai Kishore’s footwork was all over the place when Deshpande pitched one in line of the stumps to move the ball back in, pegging back the middle-stump as Tamil Nadu slumped to 17/4.

Tamil Nadu’s hopes of a revival took a body blow when Indrajith (11) was caught at short midwicket with Tanush Kotian (2/10) taking a sharp diving catch in front of him to leave the visitors reeling.

Shankar and Sundar fought well on either side of the lunch break but the pitch did not relent in giving support to the Mumbai bowlers.

Shankar, who began well with a flurry of fours, was tested consistently outside the off-stump by Deshpande, who kept moving the ball away from the right-hander.

Deshpande’s hard work resulted in a breakthrough for Thakur who had Shankar caught at the second slip by Shams Mulani for a 109-ball 44 which featured eight fours.

Having shown a little interest in getting runs, Shankar’s departure forced Sundar to get a move on.

While he was mostly resolute in defence, Sundar also had luck favouring him twice. An outside edge off Shardul had Shreyas Iyer spilling a tough chance on 11 and when he reached 37, Musheer spilled a catch at cover.

Mohammed Mohammed smacked three fours in a row of Thakur towards the end to make it 22 runs from one over, which gave a big push to the visitor’s total.