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Memorable day for Ashwin

Sports Reporter

— Photo: K. Pichumani

IN FULL FLOW: Tamil Nadu’s R. Ashwin lit up the M.A. Chidambaram stadium with his maiden ton.

Chennai: R. Ashwin lit up day two of the Ranji Trophy Super League match between Tamil Nadu and Railways at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium with his maiden first class hundred.

Tamil Nadu declared some forty five minutes before tea at 475 for six, after Ashwin brought up the landmark.

In reply, a cover-drive-laden unbeaten half century from V. Cheluvaraj took Railways to 78 for one at close, after Palani Amarnath had removed his opening partner Prasanjit Das in the eighth over.

Responsible bat

Ashwin’s batting returns before this match, two fifties and an average of just over 21, had shown him to be a responsible lower-order bat but no more.

But his presence at number seven indicated that his team thought more of him. From the moment he off-drove Sabir Ali for four with barely an inch of follow through, two overs after marking his guard, the 22-year-old must have sensed that he could affirm that belief.

With Abhinav Mukund enjoying at the other end the returns from the patience he had invested on day one, the pair scored nearly a boundary every over in the hour and a half they combined for.

In between taking walked singles to third man, Abhinav square-drove Sabir Ali, late cut Bangar, and slashed Anureet Singh off the back foot to bring up 150.

On 161, facing his 299th ball, the lefty ran down yards to Murali Kartik and missed with his heave. Cheluvaraj was adjudged by the third umpire to have taken the bails off after Abhinav had regained the crease. But he fell soon after, top edging a slog off part-time offie Dipak Yadav into Anureet’s hands at point.

Both teams observed a minute’s silence before play began, as a mark of respect for former TNCA office-bearer T.R. Kannan who died on Thursday.

The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: K.B. Arun Karthik c Prosenjit Das b Anureet Singh 1, Abhinav Mukund c Anureet Singh b D. Yadav 162, R. Prasanna c Rawat b Sabir Ali 4, Dinesh Karthik lbw b Parida 113, S. Vidyut c Bangar b Parida 4, S. Suresh Kumar lbw b Sabir Ali 31, R. Ashwin (not out) 103, C. Ganapathy (not out) 31; Extras: (b-13, lb-6, nb-6, w-1) 26; Total: (for six wickets decl. in 146.3 overs) 475.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-9, 3-219, 4-233. 5-305, 6-392.

Railways bowling: Anureet Singh 26-5-73-1; Sabir Ali 20-3-80-2; S. Sanyal 9-0-48-0; S. Bangar 18-4-57-0; M. Kartik 38-9-86-0; Parida 25.3-3-68-2; D. Yadav 6-2-24-1, Goud 4-0-20-0.

Railways — 1st innings: P. Das c Karthik b Amarnath 7, V. Cheluvaraj (batting) 50, Y. Goud (batting) 12; Extras: (nb-9) 9; Total: (for one wicket in 31 overs) 78.

Fall of wickets: 1-12.

Tamil Nadu bowling: V. Yomahesh 9-0-35-0, P. Amarnath 8-4-19-1, C. Ganapathy 6-2-12-0, R. Ashwin 5-2-7-0, C. Suresh 2-0-5-0, S. Suresh Kumar 1-1-0-0.

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