NEW DELHI:Before play on Day 2, Tamil Nadu’s player cum bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balaji spent about half-an-hour with pacers Aswin Crist and M Mohammad. All-rounders Vijay Shankar and J Kousik joined soon, marked run-ups one by one and bowled adjacent to the boundary line with one stump to aim at.
On the other side, Railways players were so engrossed in a game of football, that they could have been forgiven for not keeping track of what was happening around them. Their football brought alive a gloomy Karnail Singh Stadium covered in fog.
Resuming at 288 for six, Tamil Nadu were bowled out for 328 in the morning session with Baba Indrajith the last man out. When Tamil Nadu took the field, they were louder than normal. Crist, a native of Tuticorin, said at the end of the day, “To play away from home is a gift for us because as bowlers, we don’t get such wickets in Chennai. This pitch has something for everyone and though the odd ball is keeping low, it has good bounce. There was swing right through.”
Presented with a track of his liking, Crist ran through the top-order and left them tottering when play was called off 15 minutes before time because of bad light.
Saurabh Wakaskar and V Cheluvaraj began cautiously and played tight as Crist and Mohammed tested them in the channel outside off. Wakaskar, who survived a close leg-before call, was bowled after the ball deflected of his pads and rolled onto the stumps. Faiz Ahmed lasted two deliveries as J Kousik caught a half-chance at point in the same over.
Cheluvraj and R Jonathan prevented further trouble before lunch taken at 20 for two. First ball after the break, Crist pitched one on the length and it moved away slightly to take the edge of Jonathan’s bat. Thereon, without much swing, Crist and the rest bowled their hearts out without rewards as Cheluvaraj and Arindam Ghosh brought Railwyas back on track. With Rahil Shah unable to bowl because of back spasms, Abhinav Mukund had to rely on seam. Vijay Shankar bowled 10 overs and had a close call against Ghosh turned down. Mohammad saw two edges fall short of first slip.
The introduction of Kousik fetched the wicket they were looking for as Ghosh played a harmless delivery straight into the hands of gully. Crist had Mahesh Rawat caught down the leg as Tamil Nadu started sniffing a big lead.
Scoreboard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings, o/n 288/6) Indrajith c Upadhyay b Anureet 151, Malolan c Rawat b Upadhyay 12, Crist c Rawat b Anureet 0, Mohammed c Rawat b Upadhyay 6, Shah (not out) 0. Extras (lb 1, w 1, nb 5) 7. Total (all out; 111.2 ovs) 328. Fall of wickets: 7-300, 8-303, 9-328. Bowling: Anureet 43.2-8-104-5, Upadhyay 31-6-93-2, Mali 19-4-57-1, Bhima Rao 11-1-47-1, Ashish 7-0-26-1.
Railways (1st innings) Wakaskar b Crist 11, Cheluvaraj (batting) 63, Ahmed c Kousik b Crist 0, Jonathan c Karthik b Crist 4, Ghosh c Indrajith b Kousik 48, Rawat c Karthik b Crist 1, Ashish b Kousik 0, Anureet b Kousik 0, Bhima Rao (batting) 0. Extras (lb 1, w 1) 2. Total (7 wkts; 59 ovs) 129. Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-12, 3-20, 4-124, 5-125, 6-126, 7-126. Bowling: Crist 14-2-42-4, Mohammed 16-6-22-0, Vijay 10-2-33-0, Malolan 11-3-19-0, Kousik 6-1-7-3, Abhinav 2-0-5-0.
Ranji Wrap
Group A
At Rohtak: Bengal 329 (P Ojha 51, S Rana 5/46) vs Haryana 186/8 (R Sharma 52 no, M Kumar 4/49).
At Bhubaneswar: Delhi 245/7 (M Kumar 59, S Pradhan 4/83) vs Odisha.
At Jaipur: Karnataka 281 (A Choudhary 5/77) vs Rajasthan 219/7 (R Bhyatia 99).
At Nagpur: Vidarbha 332 (F Fazal 120, S Mundhe 3/60, A Sanklecha 3/60) vs Maharashtra 144/6.
Group B
At Vadodara: MP 269 (S Singh 4/61) vs Baroda 188/4 (A Waghmore 64 no, D Hooda 51).
At Valsad: UP 273 (H Asnora 57 no) & 163/7 (U Sharma 66, A Patel 4/54) vs Gujarat 100 (P Kumar 5/16, S Kumar 5/37).
At Patiala: Andhra 80 & 133 (Gurkeerat 5/38) lost to Punjab 147 (DB Prasanth 4/14) & 67/3 by 7 wkts. Points: Punjab 6, Andhra 0.
Group C
At Dharamsala: Tripura 285 (U Bose 95, A Chauhan 3/55) vs Himachal 229/3 (A Bains 114, P Chopra 101, R Dutta 3/26).
At Hyderabad: J&K 460 (P Rasool 75, A Ahmed 5/92) vs Hyderabad 113/2 (T Agarwal 57 no).
At Jamshedpur: Goa 141/2 (S Asnodkar 67 no) vs Jharkhand.
At Delhi: Services 254 vs Saurashtra 264 (A Barot 66, M Khalid 5/74, D Pathania 4/72).