Mumbai lose to TN in Ranji semis

Popular track 'Kolaveri Di' was buzzing inside the Tamil Nadu dressing room after their crushing win over 39-time champions Mumbai in the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy at the Wankhede Stadium yesterday.u00a0After all, they had all the reasons to celebrate going into their 11th final. Tamil Nadu avenged their back-to-back Ranji final losses in 2002-03 and 2003-04 against Mumbai. Subramaniam Badrinath, who was a part of those squads, was delighted after beating Mumbai in their own den. "Those defeats (2003 and 2004) were really heartbreaking. So, it is obviously very special to taste success against Mumbai. It does not happen often," Badrinath toldu00a0

Tamil Nadu made it to the January 19 final against Rajasthan after taking the first innings lead. They piled on the hosts' agony notching up 331 for eight (declared) after taking a huge lead of 202. Chasing an improbable target of 534, Wasim Jaffer's men were 88 for three before the match was called off by mutual consent. Ramaswamy Prasanna was adjudged the man of the match.u00a0

The batsman said they were not thinking about the past failures against Mumbai. "Those results were not on our minds. We were only thinking about how we can win this match. It feels good to come out with flying colours against Mumbai. This win will help us go into the final with a positive frame of mind. We have a great chance to win the title now," he said.

Tamil Nadu skipper Laxmipathy Balaji said he was interested in guiding the inexperienced bowling attack. "Over the last 25-30 years, we have had good batsmen. The team has a strong batting unit, but the bowling was inexperienced and I decided to guide it. We bowled as a unit, hunted in packs," the India pacer said.

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