CHENNAI: It was a fruitful day for Tamil Nadu as their bowlers did an excellent job to pick 14 wickets and make the Chandigarh batters to cave under pressure on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Elite 'D' group match played at Sector 16 cricket stadium, Chandigarh, on Wednesday.
Sai Kishore led from the front and made things happen with his shrewd bowling changes. First he got Chandigarh all out for 94 in their first essay and in the second innings although Chandigarh fared better, they were reduced to 189 for 7 in 57 overs at stumps. With Chandigarh still trailing by 288 runs, with just three wickets in hand and with the cream of the batters back in the pavilion, Tamil Nadu are assured of an innings win.
Earlier in the morning it took Tamil Nadu just 17.2 overs to bowl out Chandigarh for 94 and enforce the follow on. Sonu Yadav was at his lively best and returned with figures of 4 for 18. Saravana Kumar and R Sai Kishore took two wickets each and lent good support to him. Sonu Yadav (4/18) used the early morning conditions to his advantage. His fiery burst resulted in three batters being castled without any clue. It was similar to the one he did in the last game against Railways at Chepauk. He bowled wicket to wicket with accuracy and castled the batters with his pace and angles.
"Honestly we did not expect 14 wickets to fall. But we used the conditions better. We bowled wicket to wicket and tight lines in the morning. The pitch was pretty good in the morning for batting, bowling and overall match conditions were good. We made them commit mistakes with our accuracy," Sonu Yadav told this daily.
Against Railways Sonu bowled a similar spell and it changed the complexion of the game. "Today, I bowled similar to the one I did against Railways. I did bowl a consistent line on the stumps. There was decent bounce and carry. Plus I got good support from Saravana and Sai Kishore. The fact that I got three of them bowled shows that they had no time to play the ball or ran short of ideas to play the same," he added.
In the second innings Arjun Yadav (60) and captain Manan Vohra (59) combined to put up a good fight and delay the inevitable and stretch the game to the fourth day. "In the second innings they batted better as the wicket became better to bat in the afternoon. It was teamwork that helped us get 14 wickets today. One bowler cannot get wickets that easily in both the innings. So when we made them follow on we decided that all of us must contribute with the ball and it worked," said Ajith Ram.
The lanky left arm spinner, who scored an unbeaten century, was at his creative best plotting four dismissals with his flight. He broke the stand and accounted for a settled Azad. "I deceived him with flight by drawing him forward. Arjun came down the pitch even before I released the ball. So, I responded by tossing the ball wider. That's all, he missed it and that's how I got that wicket," revealed Ajith.
In his second spell, Ajith was almost unplayable. "Initially, when I started bowling, things were going well. But I tried to focus on bowling tight lines. I focused on maintaining consistency and sticking to the process. While I was doing that, the batters themselves started giving away wickets. It was a little difficult for the new batter coming in, so I capitalized on that opportunity. That's all. I also bowled slightly outside, around the third-to-fourth stump line and got the ball to turn to deceive the batters and get some close in catches," said Ajith Ram.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 571/7 decl in 154 ovs vs Chandigarh 94 in 37.3 ovs (Saravana 2/21, Sai 2/14, Sonu 4/18) and following on 189/7 in 57 ovs (Nehal 26, Arjun 60, Manan 59; Sai 2/41, Ajith Ram 4/32).