The Ranji Trophy Final between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu is interestingly poised. With only the last day to go today, Tamil Nadu still have to make 275 runs with seven of their wickets intact currently!

Mumbai on the other hand will bet on the fact that Tamil Nadu's star of the first innings, test discard, S. Ramesh was out cheaply. Other things in Mumbai's favour are... Tamil Nadu is batting last on a pitch that has been exposed to the severe Mumbai heat for the last four days... Mumbai has two quality spinners who can extract good spin using the conditions very well... Early morning advantage can be claimed with pacemen like Agarkar and Salvi steaming in at the TN batsmen.

The odds look stacked heavily in Mumbai's favour. yayyyy!!

But the crux of the matter is that even in this May heat, the players from both the teams have given us a match worthy of a final of the premier cricket tournament in India.

For all the claims of being a cricket-crazed nation, the empty stands at Wankhede stadium pose questions that no one can answer. Are we really a cricket-crazy nation?? Or just a nation of idol-worshippers??!

Best of luck, Mumbai!!

[update] Mumbai have won the Ranji Trophy final match against Tamil Nadu by 140 runs. As I had said in my post, the spinners did short work of the Tamil Nadu batsmen, as they scalped 7 of the 10 wickets to fall. Sairaj Bahutule continued his good form as he grabbed 5 wickets in exchange of 70 runs. And thus, Mumbai regain the Ranji Trophy, something they are so used to doing!![/update]