CHENNAI:Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt (6 for 58) put Baroda in a position of strength against Tamil Nadu on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group B match at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Friday.
On a day where 19 wickets fell, Baroda first managed to gain a slender lead of 34 runs and then bundled out Tamil Nadu for 155 in their second essay. Chasing 122 runs for a win, they were four for no loss at stumps.
This was after Tamil Nadu spinners DT Chandrasekar and Rahil Shah picked up four wickets each to restrict Baroda to 159. Tamil Nadu coach M Sanjay had predicted Chandrasekar coming good on this surface, and he reposed his coach’s trust.
He was accurate, bowled in the right areas and showed no signs on nervousness, for someone making his debut. “Chandrasekar was a perfect foil for the experienced Rahil. He used the surface admirably to suit his style of bowling. He bowled a nagging length and pitched in the right areas and allowed the wicket to do the rest,’’ complimented Sanjay Chandrasekar was pleased with his performance and cherished the wicket of Hardik Pandya, who was pegged onto the back foot before nailing him in front. “Pleased with the effort. Got good support from Rahil Shah at the other end,’’ he said.
Yusuf Pathan (41) was once again the pick of Baroda batsman. Unlike the rest of his teammate, Yusuf played his natural game and mostly played on the front foot, unlike his teammates. He was harsh on off-spinner Malolan Ragarajan, carting the offie all over the park. But an ambitious shot off Rahil undid him.
But all their efforts were nullified yet again by a poor display by the batsmen. None of them showed the inclination to take the battle to the opposition. One again they caved in, on a wicket that assisted spinners but certainly not unplayable. A lot depended on B Aparajith and Dinesh Karthik, but they underwhelmed.
Aparajith was undone by a poor umpiring decision, as he given caught behind off Bhargav, when the bat was far away from the line of the ball. Dinesh ran himself out, courtesy a direct throw from Hardik Pandya. “The top order was very very hesitant and unsure of themselves. The wicket was slightly two-paced and had some bounce, but far from unplayable. They failed to apply themselves,’’ observed Sanjay.
Tamil Nadu promoted R Prasanna ahead of Karthik to negate the threat of Bhargav, but the move backfired. “The idea of sending Prasanna ahead of Karthik was to negate the effect of Baroda left-arm spinners. We wanted Prasanna to get some runs against them. Later, Karthik could come and attack. But it did not work for us,’’ explained Sanjay.
Scoreboard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings) 125
Baroda (1st innings, overnight 33/1) Devdhar st Karthik b Chandrasekar 40, Waghmode c Indrajith b Chandrasekar 21, Pandya lbw Chandrasekar 2, Yusuf lbw Rahil 41, Hooda c B Shankar b Rahil 5, Swapnil (run out) 3, Shah c Karthik b Rahil 15, Vahora c Aparajith b Chandrasekar 0, Mangalorkar (not out) 1, Bhatt c Karthik b Rangarajan 16, Extras (b 2, lb 3, pen 5) 10, Total (all out; 49.2 overs) 159. Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-64, 3-75, 4-92, 5-104, 6-122, 7-133, 8-142, 9-142. Bowling: Vignesh 3-0-16-0, Kousik 5-3-2-0, Rahil 19-4-38-4, Rangarajan 9.2-1-43-1, Chandrasekar 13-1-50-4.
Tamil Nadu (2nd innings) B Shankar c Waghmode b Bhatt 15, Mukund c Hooda b Swapnil 0, Aparajith c Shah b Bhatt 39, Prasanna c Solanki b Yusuf 2, Karthik (run out) 18, Indrajith c Yusuf b Bhatt 35, Kousik st Shah b Swapnil 14, Rangarajan c Shah b Bhatt 14, Vignesh c Devdhar b Bhatt 4, Rahil b Bhatt 7, Chandrasekar (not out) 0, Extras (b 4, lb 3) 7, Total (all out; 59.4 overs) 155. Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-49, 3-56, 4-56, 5-93, 6-116, 7-138, 8-142, 9-153. Bowling: Swapnil 21-2-56-2, Bhatt 23.4-6-58-6, Yusuf 14-2-33-1, Hooda 1-0-1-0. Baroda (2nd innings) Devdhar (not out) 4, Solanki (not out) 0, Extras 0, Total (0 wickets; 2 overs) 4. Bowling: Rahil 1-0-4-0, Rangarajan 1-1-0-0.
Ranji Wrap
Group A
At Guwahati: Karnataka 187 & 77/0 vs Assam 194 (Pallavkumar Das 55, Amit Verma 57).
At Nagpur: Vidarbha 467 (Umesh Yadav 128 no; Basant Mohanty 3-65, Suryakant Pradhan 3-76) vs Odisha 79/2.
At Jaipur: Delhi 138 & 176/1 (Unmukt Chand 84, Gautam Gambhir 77 no) vs Rajasthan 240 (Deepak Chahar 50; Sumit Narwal 3-47, Manan Sharma 3-59).
At Pune: Haryana 335 (H Rana 157; Sammad Fallah 3-78, Nikit Dhumal 3-55) vs Maharashtra 7/0.
Group B
At Vizianagaram: Andhra 213/4 (M Kaif 89 no, Ricky Bhui 103) vs Mumbai.
At Mohali: Punjab 604/5 decl (Uday Kaul 112, Mandeep Singh 109, Gurkeerat Singh 201 no, Gitansh Khera 102 no) vs Railways 14/0.
At Moradabad: Uttar Pardesh 656/5 (M Saif 198, A Shaukat 128, Sarfaraz Khan 155; Jalaj Saxena 3-190) vs Madhya Pradesh.
Group C
At Delhi: Jharkhand 45 & 192 (Virat Singh 51, Saurabh Tiwary 56; Diwesh Pathania 7-64) vs Services 161 (Rahul Shukla 3-61) & 5/0.
At Srinagar: Jammu & Kashmir 330 (Bandeep Singh 82, Waseem Raza 73; Karaparambil Monish 3-63) vs Kerala 158/2 (VA Jagadeesh 69, Rohan Prem 67 no).
At Rajkot: Saurashtra 307 (Sheldon Jackson 97; Tushar Saha 4-72, Abhijit Dey 4-118) vs Tripura 103 (R Jadeja 6-27) & 11/3.
At Porvorim: Hyderabad 325/9 d (Rituraj Singh 3-74) vs Goa 45/1.