Tamil Nadu covered significant miles in its journey towards success on the second day of its Ranji Trophy Group ‘B’ match against Railways here, but an unforeseen obstacle caused a halt in the last hour.
Railways finished on an unimpressive 152 for eight — still trailing by 94 — but it looked relatively better thanks to Karn Sharma’s belligerence.
The southpaw’s unbeaten half-century off 79 balls stood out for his aggression that unsettled the opposition. Sharma added 51 with Krishnakant Upadhyay to mitigate the disastrous setting which brought the two together.
Terrific trioThe medium-pace trio of J. Kaushik, M. Mohammed and L. Balaji provided threats of varying severity to acquire dominance for their side. Kaushik pitched the ball full to gain his wickets; Mohammed troubled the batsmen through his quicker pace from a slightly shorter length; Balaji wasn’t as menacing as the aforementioned duo but his austere measures were troubling enough. His dismissal of Mahesh Rawat was his crowning glory.
The wicketkeeper was perhaps more assured in attack than defence; his decision to leave Balaji’s inward-drifting ball proved catastrophic as his off-stump surrendered.
The stumps received a harder blow later when Kaushik bowled a perfect yorker to end Arindam Ghosh’s 102-minute obduracy.
Mohammed’s preferred artifice, though, was different. An extra bit of pace and lower bounce caught Harshad Rawle on the pads while Shivakant Shukla drove the ball into the fielder’s hands at cover upon playing a delivery that was tad slower.
The latter recognised the change in pace, but failed to restrain himself in time. The successes aside, TN would have experienced a little regret due to its inability to gain a bigger lead. But the visitor had similarly frustrated Railways earlier in the day.
Resuming on 88, R. Prasanna enjoyed the company of Kaushik and Aushik Srinivas to stretch TN’s score to 246. The left-hander reached his hundred with a pull shot for a boundary but didn’t stop there. Prasanna accumulated a further 17 off the next 24 deliveries before holing out to fine-leg to bring an end to the innings.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu – 1st innings: K.B. Arun Karthick lbw b Anureet 0, Abhinav Mukund c Rawat b Mali 16, S. Badrinath c Rawat b Mali 26, B. Aparajith c Rongsen b Karn 29, Dinesh Karthik lbw b Mali 1, R. Prasanna c Karn b Anureet 117, Malolan Rangarajan lbw b Anureet 10, M. Mohammed c Bhille b Karn 2, L. Balaji lbw b Anureet 22, J. Kaushik c Rawat b Anureet 5, Aushik Srinivas (not out) 5; Extras (b-4, lb-7, lb-1, nb-1): 13; Total (in 101 overs): 246.
Fall of wickets: 0-1, 2-32, 3-47, 4-49, 5-123, 6-136, 7-143 8-200, 9-220.
Railways bowling: Anureet Singh 35-14-67-5, Krishnakant Upadhyay 21-7-49-0, Ranjit Mali 24-11-44-3, Murali Kartik 12-2-42-0, Karn Sharma 9-0-33-2.
Railways – 1st innings: Shivkant Shukla c Badrinath b Mohammed 25, Jonathan Rongsen c Dinesh Karthik b Balaji 0, Nitin Bhille b Kaushik 13, Harshad Rawle lbw b Mohammed 3, Arindam Ghosh b Kaushik 21, Mahesh Rawat b Balaji 8, Karn Sharma (batting) 50, Murali Kartik c Mukund b Kaushik 6, Anureet Singh c & b Malolan 8, Krishnakant Upadhyay (batting) 12; Extras (lb-1, w-1, nb-4): 6; Total (for eight wkts. in 63 overs): 152.
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-26, 3-45, 4-54, 5-65, 6-82, 7-88, 8-101.
Tamil Nadu bowling: J. Kaushik 20-11-35-3, L. Balaji 14-7-24-2, M. Mohammed 13-4-39-2, Malolan Rangarajan 9-2-29-1, Aushik Srinivas 7-2-24-0.
