Eleven wickets fell on day two of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A' match between Tamil Nadu and Delhi here on Thursday, a day that saw the visitor take decisive steps towards establishing a first innings lead. At close of play, Tamil Nadu was 122 for five, 196 behind Delhi's 318.
This after the host had enjoyed a near-perfect first session, in which its bowlers dismissed Delhi's last six for just 60, with R. Ashwin scalping his ninth first class five-for. The off-spinner looked in superb rhythm, and constantly made the ball jump at the batsmen — this didn't happen on day one.
Kohli first to go
At the start of play, the course of the match seemed to hinge on how far Virat Kohli, on 119 overnight, would manage to extend his innings. As it turned out, he was first to go, flicking Ashwin uppishly to short midwicket.
Ashwin polished off his last two with the carrom ball — Parvinder Awana leg-before playing down the wrong line and Pawan Suyal caught at silly-point.
Tamil Nadu lost Abhinav Mukund before lunch, the left-hander caught and bowled by left-arm seamer Suyal off the leading edge. S. Anirudha and Arun Karthik added 45 for the second wicket before the former became left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra's first victim, caught at silly-point.
The scores: Delhi — 1st innings: Chetan Sharma c Badrinath b Prabhu 11, S. Dhawan b Ashwin 41, V. Kohli c Sathish b Ashwin 139, M. Manhas lbw b Ganapathy 70, R. Bhatia (ret. out) 1, P. Bisht c Aushik b Ashwin 8, Y. Nagar c Abhinav b Sathish 0, M. Chauhan (not out) 14, P. Awana lbw b Ashwin 3, Vikas Mishra b Sam 2, P. Suyal c Arun Karthik b Ashwin 2; Extras (b-9, lb-9, nb-3, w-6): 27. Total (in 116.1 overs): 318.
Fall of wickets: 1-53, 2-55, 3-245, 4-295, 5-296, 6-296, 7-310, 8-315, 9-318.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Ganapathy 19-7-25-1, Sam 21-4-70-1, Ashwin 31.1-8-94-5, Prabhu 14-6-34-1, Aushik 18-2-53-0, Sathish 12-4-19-1, Abhinav 1-0-5-0.
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: Abhinav Mukund c & b Suyal 2, S. Anirudha c Chetan Sharma b Mishra 28, K.B. Arun Karthik c Bisht b Awana 18, S. Badrinath (batting) 45, Dinesh Karthik c sub (Tehlan) b Mishra 6, R. Sathish b Mishra 2, C. Ganapathy (batting) 14; Extras (b-3, nb-4): 7; Total (for five wkts. in 54 overs): 122.
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-48, 3-50, 4-60, 5-82.
Delhi bowling: Awana 10-2-28-1, Suyal 10-3-28-1, Mishra 19-7-22-3, Kohli 1-0-3-0, Chauhan 9-3-28-0, Nagar 3-1-7-0, Manhas 2-1-3-0.