Ishwar Pandey ran through the fragile Tamil Nadu batting line-up picking up six wickets as Madhya Pradesh bowled out the visitors for just 149 on day one of the Elite Group B Ranji Trophy clash at the Holkar Stadium here on Wednesday.
Put in on a difficult wicket where there was a lot of assistance for the pacers, TN did well in the tough first session to recover from seven for two as it went to lunch on 92 for three.
However, like in the last game against Himachal Pradesh, TN squandered a good platform due to poor shot selection against some brilliant swing bowling from Pandey and Avesh Khan (2/34) as the side lost seven wickets for just 48 runs.
In reply, MP finished the day on 56 for three with T. Natarajan taking two wickets and Vignesh the other in the final session that was briefly interrupted by bad light.
Successive strikes
Earlier, Pandey struck in the sixth over of the day with two beautiful inswingers to trap opener K. Mukunth and Kaushik Gandhi leg-before off successive deliveries before Ganga Sridhar Raju and debutant C. Hari Nishanth steadied the ship.
The diminutive Raju showed tremendous grit against the pacers who were getting the ball to swing both ways. He played close to the body until Avesh, coming around the wicket, induced a false shot to dismiss him caught behind.
Collapse
The dismissal after lunch triggered a collapse during which TN lost four wickets for nine runs, with Avesh and Pandey picking up two each.
The best batsman for TN, though, was skipper B. Aparajith, who was scored a valiant unbeaten 61. Aparajith looked positive from the beginning, punishing the bad deliveries and while being solid in defence as well. He added 53 runs for the fourth wicket with Raju.
The skipper flicked elegantly when the bowlers sprayed on the leg-side and was equally adept at driving on the off, his knock studded with 11 hits to the fence.
N. Jagadeesan and J. Kosuik were guilty of playing at deliveries well out of their reach to offer simple catches to third slip, while M. Mohammed was bowled by a beautiful outswinger from Pandey.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: K. Mukunth lbw b Pandey 1, V. Ganga Sridhar Raju c Mantri b Avesh 43, M. Kaushik Gandhi lbw b Pandey 0, C. Hari Nishanth c Mantri b Kuldeep 22, B. Aparajith (not out) 61, N. Jagadeesan c Patidar b Pandey 3, J. Kousik c Patidar b Avesh 0, M. Mohammed b Pandey 1, R Sai Kishore c Patidar b Hirwani 5, K. Vignesh lbw b Pandey 2, T Natarajan b Pandey 0; Extras (b-5, lb-6): 11; Total (in 59 overs): 149.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-7, 3-48, 4-101, 5-108, 6-109, 7-110, 8-144, 9-149.
Madhya Pradesh bowling: Avesh 16-4-34-2, Pandey 20-8-26-6, Kuldeep 14-1-49-1, Venkatesh 3-1-6-0, Hirwani 6-0-23-1.
Madhya Pradesh — 1st innings: Rameez Khan (batting) 23, Ajay Rohera lbw b Natarajan 0, Anand Singh Bais c Jagadeesan b Vignesh 8, Rajat Patidar c Jagadeesan b Natarajan 13, Yash Dubey (batting) 8; Extras (lb-4): 4; Total (for three wkts. in 20 overs): 56
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-20, 3-41.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Natarajan 10-3-23-2, Vignesh 9-4-25-1, Mohammed 1-1-0-0.
Toss: MP .
