Hemang Badani chose the occasion of the Ranji Trophy semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium in April 2000 to announce himself onto the national stage. Although he had a rather ordinary start to the season, Badani recovered his touch with two fifties and a hundred in the matches leading upto this clash with Mumbai. Tamil Nadu lost the toss and were invited to take first strike by Mumbai skipper Sachin Tendulkar, secure in the knowledge that he had a four pronged pace attack to exploit the conditions.

Badani was called into action in the third over of the day after opening bat Sridharan Sriram was caught behind off Ajit Agarkar. Along with Sadagopan Ramesh, he added 93 for the second wicket before they parted company. Two more partners deserted Badani and when skipper Robin Singh walked into the middle, Tamil Nadu were in a difficult situation at 149/4 in the 40th over.

Then began a thrilling counterattack by Robin and Badani as Tamil Nadu raced to 397/4 by stumps. They kept the fielders on their toes by running the ones and twos hard and keeping the board ticking. When the ball was there to be hit, it was despatched with minimum fuss. Badani found the boundary 25 times during the day and returned to the dressing room undefeated on 162. The next morning however, with the partnership worth 254, he was trapped leg before by medium pacer Santosh Saxena without adding to his overnight score. Badani's runs had been collected from 253 balls in the course of more than six and three quarter hours in the middle.

Robin Singh ran out of partners on 183 as Tamil Nadu failed to build on their opening day's gains, closing at 485. Although Mumbai lost wickets at regular intervals, one man Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (233 not out) single-handedly shepherded his team past Tamil Nadu for a first innings lead of five runs. The demoralised visiting side collapsed to 171 inside 55 overs in their second innings, Badani top scoring with 63 (124 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) before he was ninth out, and Mumbai coasted to an eight wicket victory early on the fifth day.

In his post-match comments, Tendulkar was to quick to appreciate Badani's performance. "The 162 in the first innings was a classy innings. Even in the second knock he batted brilliantly. I was very impressed with his application. He is prepared to stay at the wicket and get his runs", said the Mumbai skipper. It was no surprise really when Badani was named in the Indian ODI squad for the Asia Cup shortly afterwards, a position he still retains.