Punjab ended the day at 36 for one in its second innings to finish with an overall lead of 174 as Tamil Nadu was bowled out for paltry 68, in reply to Punjab’s first innings score of 206, in their Ranji Trophy Group B clash at the NPRCET grounds here on Tuesday.
Tamil Nadu’s innings was similar to the South African first innings in Nagpur where it was bowled out for 79.
Tamil Nadu struggled to cope with the excessive turn and uneven bounce in the pitch after losing the toss on day one.
It was total chaos right from the time Baba Aparajith swept Rajwinder Singh to Sarabjit Ladda at square leg. K. Dinesh Karthik was out leg before to Harbhajan Singh before Abhinav Mukund mistimed a pull off Rajwinder Singh to Harbhajan Singh at square leg.
Rajwinder continued to trouble the Tamil Nadu batsman as the left-arm spinner got sharp turn and bounce from the wicket.
While Baba Indrajith, playing forward, was caught at slip by Mandeep Singh, R. Prasanna was caught playing back to Harbhajan.
R. Sathish’s dismissal was the worst of the lot as the ball kept low and crashed into his stumps as Tamil Nadu went into tea tottering at 29 for six.
Vijay Shankar played an over ambitious shot off the very first ball after tea and was caught at long on. J. Kousik saved Tamil Nadu the blushes as his knock of 30 helped it avoid the follow on. Rajwinder cleaned up the tail to finish with six wickets.
Earlier in the day, Punjab lost wickets at regular intervals. Pargat Singh playing forward was caught at slip by R. Sathish off Rahil Shah. Sathish once again came up with a brilliant reflex catch to his right to dismiss Uday Kaul off Malolan Rangarajan.
D.T. Chandrasekar then struck twice. Jiwanjot Singh, who came up with some good sweep shots, was trapped leg before while Mandeep Singh was castled leaving Punjab struggling at 70 for four.
Looking at the match situation and what followed later on in the day, Yuvraj Singh probably played the innings of the tournament for Punjab. Punjab desperate for an outright win to qualify needed someone to stay in the middle to get to a fighting score in the first innings.
He found an able ally in Mayank Sidhana as they put on 53 for the fifth wicket. Yuvraj was also given a life when on seven as Abhinav Mukund missed a tough chance. Yuvraj kept the good balls away and punished the loose deliveries.
A couple of sixes by Yuvraj, one each off Malolan and Chandrasekar, made sure that Punjab crossed the hundred run mark.
The partnership was cut shot when Yuvraj was out to a soft dismissal pulling a rank long hop from medium pacer J. Kousik straight to mid on for 49.
Punjab went in to lunch at 139 for six. Harbhajan was out to a slog immediately after lunch. B. Brainder Sran used his reach to clear the boundary twice and his useful contribution along with Rajwinder got Punjab past 200.
Rajwinder was very happy with his bowling effort and said, “I really enjoyed bowling on this wicket. If one plays positively he can score runs also as Yuvraj Singh showed. We are planning to set them a challenging target in the second innings.”
Kousik felt that the batsmen crumbled under the pressure.
“We tried to play positively but it did not work. The close in fielders took the catches when we tried to defend.
“We will chase any target that they set in the second innings,” he added.
The scores: Punjab — 1st innings: Jiwanjot Singh lbw b Chandrasekar 29, Pargat Singh c Sathish b Rahil 0, Uday Kaul c Sathish b Malolan 13, Mandeep Singh b Chandrasekar 8, Yuvraj Singh c Rahil b Kousik 49, Mayank Sidhana c Sathish b Chandrasekar 21, Gitansh Khera run out 13, Harbhajan Singh c Dinesh Karthik b Malolan 6, Brainder Sran b Rahil 33, Rajwinder Singh (not out) 23, Sarabjit Ladda run out 1; Extras (b-10): 10; Total (in 57 overs): 206.
Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-29, 3-49, 4-70, 5-123, 6-136, 7-140, 8-164, 9-197.
Tamil Nadu bowling: J. Kousik 4-1-10-1, Rahil Shah 17-0-68-2, Malolan Rangarajan 18-3-67-2, D.T. Chandrasekar 13-2-43-3, B. Aparajith 5-1-8-0.
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: B. Aparajith c Ladda b Rajwinder 8, Abhinav c Harbhajan b Rajwinder 1, Dinesh Karthik lbw b Harbhajan 3, Vijay Shankar c Sidhana b Harbhajan 7, B. Indrajith c Mandeep b Rajwinder 1, R. Prasanna c Mandeep b Harbhajan 2, R. Sathish b Rajwinder 0, J. Kousik c Sran b Ladda 30, Malolan b Rajwinder 5, Rahil Shah lbw b Rajwinder 7, D.T. Chandrasekar (not out) 0; Extras (lb-4): 4; Total (in 23.4 overs): 68.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-14, 3-16, 4-17, 5-20, 6-23, 7-29, 8-42, 9-68.
Punjab bowling: Harbhajan 10-0-30-3, Rajwinder 11.4-1-29-6, Sarabjit Ladda 2-0-5-1.
Punjab — 2nd innings: Jiwanjot (batting) 10, Pargat c Abhinav b Malolan 19, Rajwinder (batting) 0; Extras (b-6, lb-1): 7; Total (for one wicket in 10 overs): 36.
Fall of wickets: 1-33.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Rahil 3-0-15-0, Chandrsekar 4-1-12-0, Malolan 2-1-1-1, Aparajith 1-0-1-0.
Toss: Punjab.
