Led by a five-wicket haul by left-arm spinner Nilesh Kulkarni, holders Mumbai restricted Tamil Nadu to 269 for 9, but not before Dineseh Karthik hit an unbeaten 102 to deny the visitors a runaway advantage on the first day of the Ranji Trophy cricket final in Chennai on Friday.

Mumbai's task was made easy by some inept batting by the home batsmen, who failed to apply themselves on an easy track after electing to bat.

At close, medium pacer M R Srinivas (2) was batting with Karthik, who had scored 122 in the first innings against Railways in the semi-finals.

Besides Karthik, S Sriram (51) was the other batsman to sparkle before getting out playing a reverse sweep.

Mumbai skipper Sairaj Bahutule persisted with a double spin attack in the form of himself and Kulkarni (31-5-82-5) for the better part of the day and claimed three wickets for 74 runs off 26 overs.

Wasim Jaffer, deployed in the slips, took five catches.

Eighteen-year-old wicket-keeper/batsman Karthik, who came in at no.7 with Tamil Nadu's total reading 123 for five, added 84 runs with S Sharath (29-68b, 6x4) for the sixth wicket. But Bahutule triggered off a mini-collapse, striking thrice in the space of nine overs, to leave the hosts reeling at 227 for eight.

Karthik, who played an attacking game, hit the bowlers all around the ground as he raced to his century, off only 120 balls, with the help of a huge six off Kulkarni. His knock included 16 fours, four of which came in a single over from Avishkar Salvi.

Scoreboard

Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
S Suresh c Jaffer b Kulkarni 38
S Ramesh c Samant b Patel 1
Sriram c Jaffer b Kulkarni 51
S Badrinath C Joglekar b Kulkarni 0
Hemang Badani c Jaffer b Kulkarni 27
S Sharath c Jaffer b Bahutule 29
Dinesh Kartik batting 102
V Sivaramakrishnan c Jaffer b Bahutule 6
R Ramkumar c Mane b Bahutule 5
C Ganapathy c Joglekar b Kulkarni 1
M R Srinivas batting 2

Extras: (lb-2, b-4, nb-1) 7

Total: (for 9 wkts in 90 overs) 269

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-74, 3-74,4-122, 5-123, 6-207, 7-219, 8-227, 9-238.

Bowling: Munaf Patel 17-3-47-1, Avishkar Salvi 13-1-52-0, Bhavin Thakkar 3-0-8-0, Nilesh Kulkarni 31-5-82-5, Sairaj Bahutule 26-4-74-3.