2016-17 Ranji Trophy: Resurgent Tamil Nadu take on champions Mumbai in a mouth-watering clash
The 2016-17 edition of the Ranji Trophy has come to the fag end as there are only four teams left in the tournament. In the semi-finals of this year’s tournament, defending champions, Mumbai take on a resurgent Tamil Nadu while giant-killers Gujarat take on the underdogs Jharkhand at Rajkot and Nagpur respectively.
All the four teams are coming into the semi-finals on the back of some consistent performance in the last 12 weeks. With no clear favourites, all these teams have a good opportunity to lift the title.
This is Tamil Nadu’s best chance to end their Ranji Trophy drought as they have been completely professional since day 1. Playing at neutral venues too helped their cause in a big way as their pacers came into the reckoning and won matches for the South Indian giants on a regular basis. Thrashing Karnataka in the quarters will give them a lot of confidence going into the semis against Mumbai.
Mumbai will look to continue their dominance over TN in the semis and this match is expected to a cracker of a contest. Let us take a look at various factors going into this semi-finals.
Head to Head
The rivalry between Mumbai and Tami Nadu dates back to the pre-Independence era when both the teams played their first match against each other as Bombay and Madras respectively. Since then, Mumbai/Bombay have always had the upper hand against Tamil Nadu/Madras.
In the 14 matches between Bombay and Madras, Bombay province has come out victorious on 9 occasions while Madras has managed to win just a single match. Four matches have ended in a stalemate.
Mumbai continued their dominance over their South Indian rivals, Tamil Nadu as they have come out on top on 6 occasions out of the 12 matches both these teams faced each other in the past. Tamil Nadu have fared better than Madras as they have won 2 matches compared to Madras’ solo win over Bombay and have drawn 4 matches.
In total, the team from the West has won 15 out of the 26 matches between both the teams while their Southern rivals have been the better team only thrice. Eight matches failed to produce results. The last time both these teams played, Aditya Tare’s Mumbai came out on top in a low-scoring thriller at Lahli.
| Played | Mumbai/Bombay win | Madras/TN win | Draws |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | 15 | 3 | 8 |