Tamil Nadu stuck a few more spears into Madhya Pradesh’s heart as it finished the second day of its Ranji Trophy match at 532 for eight.
S. Badrinath added 122 to his overnight score of 126 to record his second highest score in first-class cricket. His 10 hour and 43 minute-long vigil at the crease came to an end when he was caught at long-off by Ishwar Pandey off left-arm spinner Rameez Khan.
Yet, the visitor’s decision not to declare its innings on Friday may have reduced its chances of gaining an outright victory. If L. Balaji had called his men back to the pavilion after reaching 500, the bowlers would have had atleast 10 overs to attack the tired MP batsmen. TN’s progress was markedly slower on Friday, scoring 238 runs at 2.64 per over. The tempo for the second day’s play was set by Dinesh Karthik and Badrinath’s circumspect beginning.
Karthik took 16 balls to open his account; his departure was confirmed when Anand Rajan took a single-handed diving catch off his own bowling.
R. Prasanna persevered with Badrinath till lunch, but his concentration broke upon return as he edged the first delivery he faced in the afternoon session to ’keeper Naman Ojha. Yet, MP never threatened to force dismissals in quick succession.
New batsmen were allowed to settle at the crease.
Badrinath preferred to guide his innings at a leisurely pace, with a remarkably high number of runs being accrued in the third man region.
At 193, he offered a simple chance to Ojha after edging Baig down leg-side, but was dropped. Badrinath took advantage and, a few overs later, a cover drive off the same bowler took him past 200.
Vijay Shankar and Balaji were dismissed before tea to give MP hope of bowling out TN. Badrinath, however, fell only in the final session, for the addition of 56 runs in 28 overs.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: K.B. Arun Karthik lbw b Baig 31, Abhinav Mukund c Birla b Singh 13, S. Badrinath c Pandey b Khan 248, B. Aparajith c Ojha b Pandey 118, Dinesh Karthik c and b Rajan 12, R. Prasanna c Ojha b Baig 13, Vijay Shankar lbw b Amarjeet 24, L. Balaji c Bundela b Rameez 7, Aswin Crist (batting) 44, Aushik Srinivas (batting) 11; Extras (b-4, lb-1, w-2, nb-4): 11; Total (for eight wkts. in 180 overs): 532.
Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-53, 3-293, 4-324, 5-381, 6-447, 7-456, 8-491.
Madhya Pradesh bowling: Ishwar Pandey 33-11-70-1, Anand Rajan 31-4-87-1, Amarjeet Singh 37-6-108-2, Salman Baig 27-3-103-2, Rameez Khan 28-7-78-2, Jalaj Saxena 19-0-68-0, Devendra Bundela 5-0-13-0.
