Tamil Nadu got carried away by the smooth flow following a crackling century by Dinesh Karthik and put itself in a spot of trouble, as Railways closed the third day at 108 for no loss, chasing a target of 401 in the Ranji Trophy cricket league match at the Lohna ground here on Saturday.
It was natural to feel that the match was in control when Tamil Nadu made 452 in its second innings, even though skipper Abhinav Mukund was caught short of his crease while celebrating his century in the first over of the day.
Railways was well within the rules, as Abhinav did not complete the third run when the wicket-keeper passed the ball to the bowler to effect the run out. The umpires consulted the match referee before ruling the batsman out.
It was high-quality fare by Dinesh Karthik, who reached his century in 82 balls and made 163 off 145 before missing the line to leg-spinner Karn Sharma.
With Dinesh Karthik driving and cutting with assurance, smashing 24 boundaries, confidence rubbed off on the rest of the team.
Since Railways had taken a 52-run first-innings lead, Tamil Nadu had to set a target that was challenging and with not much time on hand. Yet, the slow batting in the last hour of the innings was shocking from a team in such a commanding position.
Malolan Rangarajan did keep a brisk pace from his side with a half century that was studded with six boundaries and a six. Aswin Crist scored four off 43 balls.
What was surprising, at least for the Tamil Nadu team, was that Railways raced through to 100 without loss in 25 overs, hitting 17 boundaries.
With play set to start 15 minutes earlier on the final day, Railways looks firmly on track to get 293 runs with all wickets intact.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 121.
Railways — 1st innings: 173.
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: Washington Sundar lbw b M.R. Chaudhary 14, Abhinav Mukund run out 100; Kaushik Gandhi lbw b Anureet Singh 42, B. Aparajith c Shivakant Shukla b Karn Sharma 12, Dinesh Karthik b Karn Sharma 163, B. Indrajith c Shivakant Shukla b M.R. Chaudhary 52, Malolan Rangarajan (not out) 51, J. Kousik c Shivakant Shukla b Karn Sharma 2, Aswin Crist st. Mahesh Rawat b Karn Sharma 4; K. Vignesh (not out) 3; Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-2, w-1): 9; Total (for eight wkts. decl. in 132 overs): 452.
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-163, 3-165, 4-225, 5-385, 6-395, 7-403, 8-431.
Railways bowling: Anureet Singh 28-7-75-1; Deepak Bansal 22-4-62-0; M.R. Chaudhary 18-2-80-2; Karn Sharma 26-3-109-4; Ashish Yadav 38-5-120-0.
Railways — 2nd innings: Saurabh Wataskar (batting) 54, Shivakant Shukla (batting) 52; Extras (b-2): 2; Total (for no loss in 25 overs): 108.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Aswin Crist 4-0-21-0; T. Natarajan 5-1-30-0; Malolan Rangarajan 6-2-17-0; Washington Sundar 3-1-8-0; K. Vignesh 4-0-20-0; J. Kousik 2-0-2-0; B. Aparajith 1-0-8-0.
