BANGALORE: Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan powered Tamil Nadu to a strong position at the end of Day Two of their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy cricket league tie against Karnataka on Tuesday.
It was Vidyut all the way. The compact and correct left-hander was unbeaten on 115 on Monday. By the time he left it was 447 for 5 with Vidyut falling short of a splendid double ton by a mere seven runs.At the end,Vidyut had played a big part in TN reaching 521 before they were all out shortly before tea. In reply, Karnataka made 82 for the loss of Bharat Chipli’s wicket and face a Herculean task on the morrow what with skipper Robin Uthappa unwell and unlikely to come out and bat.
Resuming at 297-4, Vidyut and Suresh Kumar were involved in a fifth wicket partnership of 150 off 263 deliveries. Neither pace nor spin held any terrors and the TN batsmen went about their job with consummate ease.They produced some glorious shots bisecting the field with power and precision.Their running between the wickets was also effective as they displayed good understanding to keep the scores ticking all along.
Vidyut was coasting along to what would have been a deserving double century but a sudden rush of blood saw him try to haul C Raghu for a big one and was stumped by wicketkeeper Thilak Naidu. Vidyut occupied the crease for 413 minutes, played 355 deliveries, struck 24 boundaries and four sixes in his superbly crafted 193.
Suresh Kumar too looked good for a century but fell when he was caught off Joshi for 90.
C Suresh,who remained unbeaten with 32, and the rest used the long handle to collect some more useful runs to build an imposing total for the second straight game this season.
Sunil Joshi ended up with four for 136 while Vinay Kumar bagged three for 90 to emerge as home side’s most successful bowlers.
Pawan and Chipli began confidently.
Chipli was beaten outside the off-stump often, specially when Yo Mahesh operated from the pavilion end, but luckily for him he did not get a touch. Chipli played a couple of handsome drives, the one that he punched past cover being the best even as Pawan kept the other end going.
But as the spinners came on, the left-hand leg-spinner C Suresh, also an outstanding fielder, trapped him leg before with a ball that turned in sharply and kept low too for 26.
Pawan and Ganesh Satish steered Karnataka to 82 for 1 at stumps.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 531 (Arun Karthik 149, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan 193, Suresh Kumar 90, C Suresh 32 n.o., Sunil Joshi 4-136, Vinay Kumar 3-90, C Raghu 2-57) vs Karnataka (1st innings): 82-1 (Bharat Chipli 26, KB Pawan batting 23, Ganesh Satish batting 15, C Suresh 1 for 8).