Days such as this aren’t exactly a peculiar phenomenon.
Whether it was ‘Monday Blues’ or not is unknown, but runs trickled like water from an errant tap. A total of 176 runs for five wickets was all Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan could manage in 90.1 overs on an exacting day two of their Ranji Trophy contest.
After Tamil Nadu was bowled out for 318, half-an-hour after lunch, Rajasthan remained unscathed at close, tallying 89. Openers Siddharth Saraf (43 batting, 7x4 and Vineet Saxena (41 batting, 4x4, 1x6) dealt adequately with the inconsistent bounce.
The lone danger came when Saraf (on 17) backed up too far at the non-striker’s end. But, with R. Aushik Srinivas missing the stumps after receiving Vijay Shankar’s wide throw, the threat was extinguished.
The left-handed Saraf, in his maiden first-class season, served up some gorgeous cover-drives. Saxena donned briefly an aggressive cloak, launching a six over mid-wicket. After Tea, the batsmen downed the shutters for good.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu opted for incremental run-gathering — “risk-free batting”, said R. Prasanna — than spurts of flourish. That wouldn’t prevent Pankaj Singh from claiming his fifth victim. In the day’s seventh over, Vijay Shankar (60, 150b, 212m, 8x4) could only watch the ball skid on to his pads. Pankaj amply substantiated his claim that his pace had increased a few notches.
Brief scrapThen commenced a scrap that, although brief, was mouth-watering. When Malolan Rangarajan (39, 1x4, 2x6) stood way outside the crease, the umpires made it clear he couldn’t tread beyond the five-foot mark wearing half-spike shoes. Malolan traded it for studs and continued to linger out. Pankaj shot off two bouncers, the latter hitting the batsman’s helmet-grill. Malolan, though, didn’t flinch; his confident forward-defence against Pankaj elicited applause from the dressing room.
Meanwhile, Prasanna (73, 178b, 295m, 10x4) was ejected after his poke to left-arm spinner Arishta Singhavi, bowling markedly better on Monday, found first slip. The Malolan-Balaji combine continued to graft, collecting 38 runs in 19.3 overs. Balaji was leg-before missing a reverse-sweep and the innings didn’t last much longer.
Both Saxena and Prasanna agreed the slow wicket was going to deteriorate further. Prasanna, while conceding Tamil Nadu was “30 runs short”, was confident one wicket would give his team the opening.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: K.B. Arun Karthick c Chetan Bist b Pankaj 4, Abhinav Mukund lbw b Powar 26, S. Badrinath b Pankaj 50, B. Aparajith c Chetan Bist b Pankaj 8, K. Dinesh Karthik lbw b Pankaj 0, R. Prasanna c Saxena b Singhavi 73, Vijay Shankar lbw b Pankaj 60, Malolan Rangarajan st. Chetan Bist b Singhavi 39, L. Balaji lbw b Powar 15, Rahil S. Shah lbw Singhavi 0, R. Aushik Srinivas (not out) 0; Extras (b-18, lb-12, nb-12, w-1) 43; Total (in 123.1 overs) 318. Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-82, 3-97, 4-97, 5-99, 6-240, 7-268, 8-306, 9-311.
Rajasthan bowling: Pankaj Singh 26-10-54-5, Aniket Choudhary 22-5-47-0, Arishta Singhavi 31.1-7-83-3, Ramesh Powar 40-7-95-2, Ashok Menaria 4-1-9-0.
Rajasthan – 1st innings: Siddharth Saraf (batting) 43, Vineet Saxena (batting) 41; Extras (b-3, lb-1, w-1) 5; Total (for no loss in 47 overs) 89.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Balaji 8-4-9-0, Rahil 8-2-19-0, Aushik 17-8-21-0, Malolan 12-4-27-0, Aparajith 1-0-8-0, Abhinav 1-0-1-0.
