After batting for five sessions with assurance, Rajat Patidar’s defence deserted him at the worst moment as he fell four short of what would have been a brilliant maiden double hundred, but not before helping Madhya Pradesh post a competitive 393 in its first innings.
The hero of the day though was local boy M. Mohammed, who claimed a hat-trick including the crucial wicket of Patidar (four for 98), to bring Tamil Nadu back into the game towards the end of the day.
Hardly in trouble
The MP vice-captain was hardly troubled by the TN bowlers and he saw off the challenge from R. Ashwin, playing him off the backfoot with confidence.
If it was cover-drives on day one, on the second day, Patidar put the pull to good use as the TN bowlers tried to pepper him with short-pitch stuff.
He got to his 150 with two boundaries off Vijay Shankar, one a pull and another edged to third man, a rare shot that he was not in control of that took him to the milestone.
Start delayed
Earlier, play started an hour and fifteen minutes late on day two due to rain and Patidar continued from where he left off on the first day as he weathered the second new ball under helpful conditions.
New batsman Shubham Sharma also looked assured, starting with two boundaries off Abishek Tanwar in one over as the duo ensured MP went to lunch without losing a wicket. Shubham and Patidar added 106 for the fourth wicket before Rahil Shah had Shubham edging to the wicketkeeper, going for a cut.
The wicket forced Patidar to up the scoring rate with some expansive shots, the best a pull off Mohammed that sailed over the mid-wicket fence.
Patidar quickly moved into 190s with a few more boundaries before Mohammed dismissed Yash Dubey off the last ball of the second session.
In the second over after tea, Mohammed finally ended Patidar’s vigil at the crease with a beautiful delivery outside the off-stump that surprised the batsman with the extra bounce finding the outside edge.
Mohammed then had Mihir Hirwani off the next ball, caught at gully, to complete a memorable hat-trick.
Ashwin then quickly wrapped up the tail to restrict MP below 400.
The scores:
Madhya Pradesh — 1st innings: Aryaman Vikram Birla c Anirudh b Ashwin 51, Ankit Dane c Aparajith b Mohammed 4, Rajat Patidar c Jagadeesan b Mohammed 196, Naman Ojha c Indrajith b Vijay Shankar 45, Shubham Sharma c Jagadeesan b Shah 43, Yash Dubey c Jagadeesan b Mohammed, Ankit Sharma (not out) 23, Mihir Hirwani c sub b Mohammed 0, Avesh Khan c Tanwar b Ashwin 1, Ishwar Pandey c Vijay b Ashwin 5, Kuldeep Sen c & b Ashwin 4; Extras (nb-4, w-2, b-8, lb-1): 15; Total (in 157.4 overs): 393.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-133, 3-211, 4-317, 5-359, 6-360, 7-360, 8-361, 9-371.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Tanwar 27-9-58-0, Mohammed 30-6-98-4, Ashwin 38.4-5-85-4, Vijay Shankar 24-7-51-1, Rahil Shah 34-5-87-1, Aparajith 4-1-5-0.
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: Abhinav Mukund (batting) 0, M. Vijay (batting) 0; Total (for no loss in two overs): 0.
MP bowling: Ankit 1-1-0-0, Hirwani 1-1-0-0 .
Other Ranji Scores
Group A:
At Pune: Maharashtra 343 in 105.5 overs (Swapnil Gugale 47, Chirag Khurana 89, Ruturaj Gaikwad 47, Naushad Sheikh 40, Rahul Tripathi 73, Lalit Yadav three for 84, Aditya Sarwate three for 51) vs Vidarbha 120 in 44.5 overs (Wasim Jaffer 27, Aditya Sarwate 25, Satyajeet Bachhav three for three) and 48 for no loss in 17 overs (Sanjay Ramaswamy 25 batting).
At Delhi (Karnail Singh): Mumbai 411 in 105.2 overs (Jay Bista 47, Suryakumar Yadav 83, Siddhesh Lad 99, Shivam Dubey 114, Anureet Singh three for 77, Harsh Tyagi four 83, Avinash Yadav three for 99) vs Railways 115 for six in 45 overs (Arindam Ghosh 39 batting, Mahesh Rawat 30, Tushar Deshpande three for 29).
At Rajkot: Saurashtra 475 in 142.2 overs (Harvik Desai 78, Snell Patel 91, Cheteshwar Pujara 56, Sheldon Jackson 147, Aarpit Vasavada 63, Shahnawaz Hussain four for 97, Sahil Gupta three for 63) vs Chhattisgarh 88 for no loss in 32 overs (Sahil Gupta 51 batting, Rishabh Tiwari 35 batting).
At Vodadara: Baroda 290 vs Gujarat 264 for six in 92 overs (Samit Gohel 63, Priyank Panchal 31, Parthiv Patel 25, Manprit Juneja 47, Rujul Bhatt 70 batting, Atith Sheth three for 37, Bhargav Bhatt three for 69).
Group B:
At Visakhapatnam: Punjab 414 in 156.2 overs (Shubman Gill 56, Mandeep Singh 68, Gurkeerat Singh 41, Sanvir Singh 110, Mayank Markande 68 n.o., B. Ayyappa three for 78, Karn Sharma three for 115) vs Andhra 54 for three in 26 overs.
At Nadaun: Bengal 380 in 116.1 overs (Abhishek Raman 48, Sudip Chatterjee 43, Manoj Tiwary 55, Anustup Majumdar 52, Aamir Gani 47, Ashok Dinda 38, Pankaj Jaiswal five for 81) vs Himachal Pradesh 124 for three in 43 overs (Ankush Bains 79 bating).
At Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 495 for six in 164 overs declared (Arun Karthik 25, Jalaj Saxena 57, P.R. Prem 29, Sanju Samson 53, Sachin Baby 147, V. Jagadeesh 113 n.o., Akshay Chandran 48 n.o., S. Sairam three for 110) vs Hyderabad 1 for no loss in one over.
At Dindigul: Madhya Pradesh 393 in 157.4 overs (Aryaman Birla 51, Rajat Patidar 196, Naman Ojha 45, Shubham Sharma 43, M. Mohammed four for 98, R. Ashwin four for 85) vs Tamil Nadu 0 for no loss in 2 overs.
Group C:
At Ranchi: Jharkhand 344 in 112.1 overs (Kumar Deobrat 43, Nazim Siddique 72, Utkarsh Singh 76, Anukul Roy 80, Mukhtar Hussain five for 77) vs Assam 126 for two in 51 overs (Sibsankar Roy 47 batting, Gokul Sharma 49 batting).
At Bhubaneswar: Odisha 324 in 112.2 overs (Anurag Sarangi 114, Shantanu Mishra 71, Debabrata Pradhan 36, Tinu Kundu four for 44) vs. Haryana 239 for three in 65 overs (Himanshu Rana 113 batting, Chaitanya Bishnoi 75, Pramod Chandila 34 batting).
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 379 in 109.4 overs (Chetan Bist 159, Ashok Menaria 59, Robin Bist 39, Rajesh Bishnoi 30, Amitkumar Gautam 25, Mohammed Mudhasir five for 90) vs. Jammu & Kashmir 186 for seven in 62 overs (Parvez Rasool 47, Shubham Khajuria 40, Paras Sharma 40, Tanvir Ul-Haq three for 59, Rahul Chahar three for 59).
At Agartala: Tripura 268 for seven in 90 overs (Bishal Ghosh 201, Smit Patel 38, Harmeet Singh 37, Diwesh Pathania four for 79, Sachidanand Pandey three for 105) vs. Services 136 for three in 55 overs (Anshul Gupta 62, Navneet Singh 49).
At Kanpur: Goa 152 vs. Uttar Pradesh 473 for three in 139 overs (Akshdeep Nath 155 batting, Mohammad Saif 126, Madhav Kaushik 92, Priyam Garg 82 batting).
Plate group:
At Kolkata: Sikkim 372 in 111.2 overs (Milind Kumar 261, Bipul Sharma 45, Lee Yong Lepcha 25, Shelley Shaurya four for 39, Rex Singh three for 97) vs. Manipur 79 in 28 overs (Priyojit Singh 30, Yashpal Singh 29, Ishwar Chaudhary four for 37, Bipul Sharma three for 17) and (following on) 123 for two in 34 overs (Lakhan Rawat 62 batting, Yashpal Singh 48 batting).
At Shillong: Arunachal Pradesh 166 and 104 for six in 41 overs (Kshitiz Sharma 41, Abhay Negi three for 29) vs. Meghalaya 141 in 40 overs (Jason Lamare 70, Aditya Singhania 32, Licha Tehi three for 31, Subhash Sharma three for 47, Sandeep Thakur three for 19).
At Dimapur: Mizoram 106 and 16 for two in 10 overs vs. Nagaland 530 for eight decl. in 117.2 overs (Abrar Kazi 200 n.o., Jonathan Rongsen 72, Mughavi Wotsa 58, Imliwati Lemtur 50, Nitesh Lohchab 45, Tahmeed Rahman 34, K.B. Pawan 30, Moia three for 90).
At Dehradun: Bihar 60 and 169 in 50.5 overs (Samar Quadri 36, Arunay Singh 35, Sunny Kashyap four for 51, Deepak Dhopola three for 48) lost to Uttarakhand 227 in 71.3 overs (Karn Veer Kaushal 91, Saurabh Rawat 64, Rajat Bhatia 38 n.o., Ashutosh Aman four for 34, Samar Quadri three for 77) and four for no loss in 0.1 overs. Points: Uttarakhand 7, Bihar 0 .
