Mumbai wilted under the brilliant onslaught of Rajat Bhatia of Rajasthan, who scored 26 runs off the penultimate over of the innings from Shardul Thakur — the sequence being 6, 6, 6, 4, 4. This, when the team needed 24 runs in the last two overs. But, Bhatia (94 not out, 71 balls, 8x4, 3x6) made it look easy with brilliant batting to the dismay of the Mumbai camp.
The tempo for Rajasthan’s chase was built on a 145-run partnership between southpaw Ashok Menaria and Rajat Bhatia, who came together at 110 for three. The two batted sensibly, punishing the erring bowlers with ease. Just when Menaria (86, 80 balls, 7x4, 3x6) looked good for a century, his upper-cut off Dhawal Kulkarni landed safely in third man Akhil Herwadkar’s hands to make it 255 for four in 44th over.
But, soon misfortune struck Mumbai when Shreyas Iyer floored a sitter at deep mid-on off Dhawal Kulkarni when Bhatia lofted straight to the fielder on 67 in the 48th over. This proved costly as after that the Rajasthan ‘import’ did not look back and left Mumbai distraught with his belligerence.
Earlier, powered by a typical Rahane century (114, 112 balls, 10x4, 2x6) and a useful half-century from Surya Kumar Yadav (52, 79 balls, 3x4) Mumbai rallied from 44 for four in the 12th over to post what looked a challenging 301 for nine in 50 overs. It was an object lesson in the art of batting by Rahane who showed great temperament and stroke selection.
The way he swept left-arm spinner Rajesh Bishnoi over the fence was one of the many classy shots he essayed.
In a way, it was a typical Mumbai fightback in batting after the early blows struck by fast bowler Pankaj Singh whose figures read 6-1-20-3 at one stage.
In the other match, Tamil Nadu moved one step closer to making it to the knock-out phase with a clinical performance over Hyderabad. No doubt, its intention of restricting the home team to a modest total was thwarted by the efficacy of southpaw Tanmay Agarwal, who followed up his 83 against Assam on Tuesday, with a century (105, 96 balls, 11x4, 1x6) on Thursday.
For Tamil Nadu, L. Balaji (three for 33) was the pick of the bowlers while R. Sathish, Vijay Shankar and R. Ashwin took two wickets apiece.
And, when the chase was on, Tamil Nadu was rarely in trouble and was comfortably placed at 221 for four in 45 overs but lost a few wickets when the batsmen went for the slog to improve the run-rate after M. Vijay, R. Ashwin and B. Aparajith chipped in with handy contributions.
With the final round scheduled on Friday, main contenders Tamil Nadu and Punjab have 16 points each from five matches and Rajasthan, Mumbai and Services have 12 points each from five matches.
The scores: Hyderabad 230 in 49.2 overs (Danny Derek Prince 31, Tanmay Agarwal 105, Laxmipathy Balaji three for 33) lost to Tamil Nadu 233 for seven in 47.5 overs (M. Vijay 44, R. Ashwin 36, Baba Aparajith 55).
Mumbai 301 for nine in 50 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 30, Ajinkya Rahane 114, S.K. Yadav 52, Pankaj Singh four for 55) lost to Rajasthan 305 for five in 49 overs (Dishant Yagnik 40, P.R. Yadav 49, Ashok Menaria 86, Rajat Bhatia 94 not out).
