CHENNAI: It’s hard to recollect a time when Narayan Jagadeesan converted his start into something big in recent times. Touted to be the next big thing for Tamil Nadu, he barely got an extended run this season.
In the Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, he featured in only seven matches, although these being formats which are tailor-made for him. He entered the Ranji season with hardly any runs under the belt and to say he was low on confidence would be an understatement. His only notable performance in the five matches before Thursday was 54 against Madhya Pradesh in Indore.
However, the 24-year-old found his mojo back on Thursday. Unbeaten on 61 overnight, Tamil Nadu needed him to convert this into a big one.
He not only helped them to cross 300, his career-best score of 183 in the last Elite Group B encounter against Saurashtra in Rajkot propelled TN to 424 on Day 2. At stumps, Saurashtra were 107 for three, trailing by 317.
Resuming at 250 for seven, Jagadeesan’s 256-ball effort ensured they put a safe total. He hit 22 boundaries and five sixes. The right-handed batsman also shared a 115-run stand with pacer M Mohammed (42 off 121) for the eighth wicket.
Having lost two wickets before tea for 42 runs, Saurashtra played cautiously in the final session to add 65 runs and lose just one more wicket. For Tamil Nadu, the next two days will be more crucial. A win with a bonus-point might help their cause in qualifying for the knockouts, given other results also go their way. But a draw will bring curtains to their campaign.
Commentator sorry for ‘Hindi’ remark
Bengaluru: During the match between Karnataka and Baroda on Thursday, TV commentator Rajinder Amarnath said on air: “Every Indian should know Hindi. It’s our national language.”
Co-commentator Sushil Doshi agreed with him. Social media went abuzz, considering that players of the match in question mostly speak Kannada and Gujarati. Amarnath apologised later. “I should have used ‘could’ instead of ‘should’.”
Brief scores (Day 2)
Group A
In Nadiad: Andhra 177 vs Gujarat 354/6 (Parthiv 57, Gandhi 80 n.o, Axar 89; Khan 3/78).
In Hyderabad: Hyderabad 272 (Reddy 83; Gurbani 3/48, Thakur 4/44) vs Vidarbha 242/4 (Fazal 126 n.o, Satish 65; Kiran 2/19).
Group B
|In Bengaluru: Baroda 85 & 208/5 (Pathan 90, Hooda 50; Krishna 2/29, More 2/36) vs Karnataka 233 (Mithun 40; Sopariya 5/83).
In Rajkot: Tamil Nadu 424 (Jagadeesan 183; Unadkat 6/73) vs Saurashtra 107/3 (Barot 38 n.o).
Group C
In Cuttack: Odisha 436 (Debasish 156, Biplab 74; Kumar 6/79) vs Jharkhand 71/2 (Suraj 42 n.o).
Plate Group
In Puducherry: Nagaland 176 vs Pondicherry 517/7 (Udeshi 79, Karthick 98, Dogra 125 n.o, Ahmed 70; Mundhe 3/74).