A 17-year-old debutant displayed maturity beyond his years on the field and anchored a fabulous fourth innings with a debut hundred, as Mumbai into the final of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy after defeating Tamil Nadu by six wickets in the semi-final here on Thursday.
Mumbai, 41-time champions, will now take on Gujarat in the final at Indore's Holkar Stadium from January 10.
Prithvi Shaw scored 120 off 175 deliveries in the second innings to join Sachin Tendulkar, Amol Muzumdar, Ajinkya Rahane, Jatin Paranjpe and Sameer Dighe, among others, as Mumbai batsmen to score centuries on first-class debut.
Prithvi became the second youngest, at 17 years 57 days, to score a first-class century for Mumbai, after Sachin Tendulkar (15 years, 231 days in 1988). He also became the first Mumbai player to score a century on first-class debut in 23 years. The last player to do so was Amol Muzumdar (260) in 1994 against Haryana.
Shaw shared three crucial partnerships with Praful Waghela, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav to take his team over the line.
Chasing a target of 251 on the final day of the match, Mumbai openers Shaw and Praful Waghela (36) put up a 90-run stand before the latter was caught by Vijay Shankar off Baba Aparajith.
Thereafter, Shaw teamed up with Shreyas Iyer (40) to put on a 91-run stand for the second wicket before forging a 57-run third wicket stand with Suryakumar Yadav (34).
Shaw, who consumed 152 deliveries to get to his ton, laced with 13 hits to the fence and one over it, perished ten runs short of the finish line.
Shaw mistimed a slog sweep off Aushik Srinivas and was well taken by a running T. Natarajan near the midwicket boundary.
After that, Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare (4 not out) and Siddhesh Lad (1 not out) ensured there were no further hiccups as Mumbai looked on course for their 42nd Ranji title.
For Tamil Nadu, Aushik Srinivas took two wickets while Baba Aparajith and Vijay Shankar picked up one wicket apiece.
Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 305, 356/6 declared lose to Mumbai 411, 251/4 (Prithvi Shaw 120, Shreyas Iyer 40, Aushik Srinivas 2/73) by six wickets.
(With inputs from IANS)
