There is a reason why Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the skipper of Rajasthan is regarded as one of the best professionals in domestic cricket. At 38 more than his batting skills, it is his leadership qualities that sets him apart from the rest of the breed.
Kanitkar with his shrewd captaincy, where he shuffled his bowlers admirably, bowled out Tamil Nadu for 318 on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group B match at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Monday. Tamil Nadu lost five wickets on day two with the addition of just 87 runs to their overnight score of 231/5.
Rajasthan replied strongly and were comfortably placed at 89 for no loss at stumps with Siddharth Saraf batting on 43 and Vineet Saxena unbeaten on 41. Tamil Nadu lower-order batsman did not apply themselves and gifted their wickets on a platter.
A lot depended upon overnight batsmen Vijay Shankar and R Prasanna to help the hosts post a decent total. The duo had shown lot of patience on Sunday and with the wicket not changing its complexion much on Monday, it was expected Vijay Shankar and Prasanna would continue their partnership in a grand manner.
All that was required was to see through the first hour of play on Monday. But when Vijay Shankar (60) fell leg before to Pankaj Singh, the responsibility of taking TN to a huge first innings total fell on the shoulders of the experienced Prasanna. The southpaw has this uncanny ability to bat with the tail as he showed it against Railways. But in a sudden lapse of concentration Prasanna (73) went forward and played away from his body to a ball that was spinning away only to offer a regulation catch to Vineet Saxena at slips with Aristh Singhvi bagging the prize scalp.
The impressive Malolan Rangarajan scored a valuable 39 to take TN past the 300-run mark. Kanitkar kept shuffling his bowlers by operating with a mediumpacer and a spinner and then replacing it with spin at both the ends and then resorting back to medium pacers. This constant shuffling tested the TN lower-order footwork and the soft dismissals was clear indication of their state of mind.
Rajasthan replied back strongly with openers Siddharth Saraf and Vineet Saxena playing positively. Initially Saraf was sketchy, but as the game progressed he lent solid support for Saxena. “It was not an easy surface to bat on. It was very slow with the odd ball turning, so one needed to concentrate hard,” said Saxena.
Scorecard:
Tamil Nadu (1st innings overnight 231/5): R Prasanna c Saxena b Singhvi 73, V Shankar lbw Pankaj 60, M Rangarajan st C Bist b Singhvi 39, L Balaji lbw Powar 15, R Shah lbw Singhvi 0, R Aushik Srinivas not out 0, Extras (b 18, lb 12, w 1, nb 12) 43, Total (all out in 123.1 overs) 318.FoW: 1-7, 2-82, 3-97, 4-97, 5-99, 6-240, 7-268, 8-306, 9-311. Bowling: Pankaj 26-10-54-5, Choudhary 22-5-47-0, Singhvi 31.1-7-83-3, Powar 40-7-95-2, Menaria 4-1-9-0.