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Maharashtra begins well

Special Correspondent

Unbeaten triple century by Abhinav Mukund

Abhinav Mukund.

Nashik: Made to sweat on the field for nearly ten hours, Maharashtra showed no signs of being intimidated by a huge Tamil Nadu total of 648 and a versatile attack.

Offered a chance to prove their mettle Harshad Khadiwale (41) and debutants Rohan Bhosale (batting 42) and Ameya Shrikande (batting 64) demonstrated their wherewithal for close to three hours and came out with flying colours at the old golf course ground here on Tuesday in the Ranji Trophy super league.

The Tamil Nadu batsmen dominated the proceedings for nearly half of the second day. Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik brought an end to his team’s run-scoring spree soon after left-hander Abhinav Mukund completed his triple century 40 minutes after lunch.

Attacking strokes

Fluent and attacking strokes from the blade of Murali Vijay and Mukund marked the first hour with the right-hander punching the ball straight down the ground and the left-hander matching his partner shot for shot.

The second new ball made no impact on the settled opening pair which unfortunately failed to beat the first-wicket record in the national championship by three runs.

Vijay’s intended cover drive resulted in a nick and debutant wicketkeeper Rohit Motwani, who had earlier put down Mukund, held his maiden victim in a first-class match and Raman Lamba and Ravi Sehgal’s 464-run first-wicket record in the Ranji Trophy survived. However, Vijay (243, 329b, 28x4, 5x6) and Mukund (300, 383b, 33x4, 5x6) went past the 400-plus club.

Vidyut’s cameo

Tamil Nadu advanced in the pre-lunch session mainly due to Mukund’s contribution. But the team had another star in S. Vidyut who played a cameo in the third-wicket stand of 95, with a 43-ball 59, which contained six fours and three majestic sixes.

Looking at a declaration post lunch, Tamil Nadu amassed 195 runs in the first session. “Karthik told me he would give me an hour to bat after lunch and that I should try to make the most of it. I was a bit tired, but I was able to raise the bar. There are players like Virat Kohli who have played for India, so one has to constantly raise the bar,” said Mukund.

When Maharashtra batted, Khadiwale played some superb shots in front of the wicket and looked set to make a big score. But Balaji, after change of ends, produced the breakthrough.

Thereafter, left-hander Bhosale and Shrikande showed remarkable poise to deny further gains for Tamil Nadu. The pair also had 13 boundary strokes and brought the much-needed cheer to the Maharashtra camp with an undefeated stand of 107 runs for the second wicket.

The scores:

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: M. Vijay c Motwani b Khadiwale 243, Abhinav Mukund (not out) 300, D. Karthik c Shrikande b Fallah 5, S. Vidyut c Dole b Paradkar 59, S. Suresh Kumar (not out) 24; Extras (b-4, lb-7, nb-4, w-2): 17; Total (for three wkts. decl. in 132.3 overs): 648.

Fall of wickets: 1-462, 2-467, 3-562.

Maharashtra bowling: Fallah 33-2-131-1, Dole 27.3-2-114-0, Khadiwale 14-1-69-1, Haque 31-1-171-0, Shilamkar 9-0-68-0, Paradkar 18-0-84-1.

Maharashtra — 1st innings: H. Khadiwale c Karthik b Balaji 41, R. Bhosale (batting) 42, A. Shrikande (batting) 64; Extras (lb-2, nb-5): 7; Total (for one wkt. in 44 overs): 154

Fall of wicket: 1-47.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Balaji 10-2-36-1, Amarnath 10-1-43-0, Ashwin 11-3-24-0, Yomahesh 6-0-27-0, Prasanne 1-0-1-0, C. Suresh 5-0-17-0, Vidyut 1-0-4-0.

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