Chennai, Oct 13 (PTI) Tamil Nadu will look to bounce backstrongly after a draw against Andhra Pradesh in the RanjiTrophy Group "C" opener, when it takes on Tripura in thesecond game, beginning at the M A Chidambaram Stadium heretomorrow.
The fancied Tamil Nadu side came out second best in adrawn game with the much-vaunted batting line-up not firing inthe first innings. A determined ton by B Sumanth helped Andhratake the first innings lead and three points after being 64for 5 at one stage.
Though the home side's batsmen made amends in the secondinnings, Andhra came close to chasing down the target after adeclaration.
India Test stars Ravichandran Ashwin and Murali Vijay,who had a mixed outing in the opening fixture, would be eagerto make a bigger contribution and help Tamil Nadu pick upmaximum points.
Ashwin was made to work hard for his wickets and he wouldlike to step up against Tripura, which doesn't boast of anybig names. Vijay after an injury scare, was his fluent self onthe final day with a half-century. He would be keen to getamong the runs in the lead-up to the Test series against thevisiting Sri Lankans.
Tamil Nadu coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar has emphasised onthe need to seize key moments and having to take it session bysession. Now the onus would be on the team to step up againsta light-weight opposition.
Tamil Nadu captain Abhinav Mukund, who found form with 95in the second innings, told reporters ahead of the game thatthe batsmen had to take responsibility and get a good score.
"We didn't bat well in the first innings, it was a bigtalking point in our team meetings. As batsmen we need to takeresponsibility and put a good total on the board to give achance to the bowlers to defend it," Mukund said.
He also said the experienced Dinesh Karthik, who was partof the India team in the T20 series against Australia, wouldbe available for selection for the Tripura game.
Mukund also said he had full faith in the bowling attackdespite the tough time they had against Andhra.
The skipper said that they weren't taking Tripura lightlyand hoped to play its best.
"I don't take any team lightly. They have got a couple ofgood pros.. Yashpal Singh is a seasoned player.
TN would be missing the services of Baba Aparajith, whohas been picked for the India "A" team for the ODIs againstNew Zealand. He had a good outing against Andhra, scoring ahalf-century and a ton.
All-rounder J Kousik would come in as his replacement.
Tripura captain Manisankar Mura Singh said the team waslooking forward to playing a strong team like Tamil Nadu.
"It is good to play against a big team. We have beendiscussing their strengths and weaknesses. We have someexperienced players. It will be important to put up a bigscore in the first innings as it will put them underpressure," he said.
Teams (from): Tamil Nadu: Abhinav Mukund (captain), BabaIndrajith (vice-captain), Murali Vijay, M Kaushik Gandhi,Dinesh Karthik, N Jagadeesan (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, M SWashington Sundar, L Vignesh, K Vignesh, Rahil Shah, R SaiKishore, Malolan Rangarajan, V Lakshman, R Rohit (WK), JKousik.
Tripura: Manisankar Mura Singh (captain), Udiyan Bose(vice-captain), Bishal Ghosh, Samrat Sinha, Abhijet Dey,Yashpal Singh, Smit Patel (WK), Joydeep Banik, Rana Datta,Abhijit Sarkar, Gurinder Singh, Joydeep Bhattacharjee,Dwaipayan Bhattacharjee. PTI SS APRAPR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.