One of my best performances, says Mumbai U-23 pacer Arjun Tendulkar

Arjun Tendulkar (right) celebrates taking a Puducherry wicket with his teammates at the Wankhede Stadium. Pics/Suresh Karkera

Mumbai thrashed Puducherry inside three days to storm into the U-23 CK Nayudu Trophy semi-finals at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday. This massive, innings and 231-run win came on Day Three, six overs after tea, thanks mainly to two fiery spells by left-armer Arjun Tendulkar (3-24) and fellow pacer Minad Manjrekar (4-38).

It was a huge struggle for the visitors post lunch. In reply to Mumbai's 581, Puducherry were struggling 54-5 in just 15 overs.

Tendulkar, who managed only wicket from eight overs in the first essay, clean bowled Puducherry opener Sai (9) with a sharp inswinger that sneaked in between bat and pad to disturb the furniture. The left-arm pacer's second victim, Yash Jadhav (5) too, was unable to read a quick incoming delivery that took off the bails.

Arjun then forced right-hander George (0) into edging one to gully fielder Yashasvi Jaiswal. However, after claiming his third scalp, Tendulkar had to return to the dressing room after suffering an ankle injury during his follow through.

'I need to improve'

"My performance was good but I need to improve. You should never be satisfied with the performance, and always be hungry for more and more wickets. I also need to figure out how to keep my body in better condition, so I don't get injured," Tendulkar told mid-day later.

Minad Manjrekar

"In the first innings, I could have probably bowled a bit better and taken that catch," added Arjun, referring to a missed caught and bowled effort in his follow through against Puducherry's Satish Jangir. "In the second innings, everything went well. Just that I just got hurt so had to go off, sadly. But this is one of my best performances," added Tendulkar, whose second spell figures were 7.4-2-24-3 before injury struck.

Just like his bowling, Arjun is keen on his batting performance. "I have been batting well. So far, I've been among the highest run-getters in one-dayers [U-23] for Mumbai. Sadly, here, I just chased a delivery that I should have left [scoring 6 off 45 balls]. But I'm looking forward to the semi-final and hope to put in a good performance there. Our aim is to win the championship," he added.

Hardik hails bowlers

Mumbai skipper Hardik Tamore too credited Arjun and Manjrekar for their vital contributions. "Both Arjun and Minad bowled really well and that helped us dominate and win this match. Arjun bowled his best spell today," said Tamore.

Earlier, resuming on his overnight score of 60, Sarfaraz Khan fell short of the three-figure mark just by just 10 runs when he tried to square cut pacer Santhosh Kumaran only to find his stumps uprooted.

Brief scores

Puducherry 209 & 141 (Manikandan 34, S Jangir 27; M Manjrekar 4-38, A Tendulkar 3-24, S Gurav 3-51) lost to Mumbai 581 (Y Jaiswal 185, S Khan 90, H Tamore 86; S Kumaran 3-121, M Pooviarasan 3-125) by an innings and 231 runs

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