Vijay Shankar misses ton; TN on the back foot

Tamil Nadu skipper Abhinav Mukund once again failed to get a big score, edging a catch to Suresh Raina at second slip off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Vijay Shankar stood out with an excellent 92, but Tamil Nadu was on the back foot on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group B match against Uttar Pradesh at the Green Park here on Monday.

Resuming at 277 for four, Uttar Pradesh managed 348 in its first essay. Tamil Nadu recovered from six for three, but again lost its way to finish the day at 174 for six.

Some accurate bowling from Aswin Crist and Malolan Rangarajan stopped Uttar Pradesh’s journey earlier than expected. In 20.1 overs, the host added 71 runs, losing six wickets.

The breakthrough

Malolan, who picked up three wickets in his unbroken spell of 8.1 overs, provided the breakthrough in his first over. Saurabh (41, 27b, 9x4) swept the off-spinner straight to J. Kousik at short fine-leg.

Malolan then breached the defence of Suresh Raina.

Crist surprised a confident-looking Eklavya Dwivedi with a full toss and then bowled Piyush Chawla with a fuller delivery.

Uttar Pradesh’s pace duo of Praveen and Bhuvneshwar consistently hit the right areas to extract fine movement. It seemed as if they were bowling on a different track.

In the first over Praveen bowled B. Aparajith and trapped Dinesh Karthik in front.

Bhuvneshwar had Abhinav Mukund caught at second slip in the fourth over as Tamil Nadu struggled.

Thanks to a defiant 105-run fourth-wicket stand between Vijay Shankar and B. Indrajith, Tamil Nadu fought back without losing a wicket in the second session.

Vijay Shankar’s effort (92, 188b, 14x4) during the critical phase was exceptional. He maintained his composure and played each delivery on merit. After settling down well, the 24-year-old drove in the ‘V’ to find the fence on a regular basis. He targeted Chawla to step up the run- rate. Indrajith (44, 120b, 7x4) hung on despite offering several edges. Vijay Shankar, who narrowly survived a direct throw on 67, forged 56 runs with R. Prasanna before getting out to a loose shot off Praveen, just eight runs shy of his century.

The visitors lost Kousik also towards the fag end to make the task more arduous.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh: Almas Shaukat c Karthik b Vijay Shankar 88, Himanshu Asnora c Karthik b Crist 30, Umang Sharma c Karthik b Kousik 73, Suresh Raina b Malolan 61, Akshdeep Nath c Prasanna b Mohammed 19, Saurabh Kumar c Kousik b Malolan 41, Eklavya Dwivedi c Kousik b Crist 17, Piyush Chawla b Crist 2, Bhuvneshwar Kumar run out 1, Praveen Kumar c Mohammed b Malolan 6, Ankit Rajpoot (not out) 0; Extras (b-3, lb-2, nb-4, w-1): 10; Total (in 107.1 overs): 348

Fall of wickets: 1-66, 2-177, 3-236, 4-267, 5-310, 6-332, 7-338, 8-341, 9-347.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Aswin Crist 22-6-86-3, J. Kousik 19-7-47-1, M. Mohammed 19-2-83-1, Malolan Rangarajan 23.1-6-51-3, Vijay Shankar 12-0-53-1, D.T. Chandrasekar 12-2-23-0.

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: B. Aparajith b Praveen 0, Abhinav Mukund c Raina b Bhuvneshwar 2, Dinesh Karthik lbw b Praveen 0, Vijay Shankar c Asnora b Praveen 92, B. Indrajith c Akshdeep b Rajpoot 44, R. Prasanna (batting) 25, J. Kousik lbw b Chawla 2, Aswin Crist (batting) 1; Extras (b-6, lb-2): 8; Total (for six wkts. in 68 overs): 174.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-6, 4-111, 5-167, 6-172.

Uttar Pradesh bowling: Praveen Kumar 20-8-42-3, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 16-5-29-1, Ankit Rajpoot 14-3-48-1, Saurabh Kumar 6-1-11-0, Piyush Chawla 7-0-26-1, Suresh Raina 5-1-10-0.