CHENNAI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was unbeaten on 118 Tuesday, added 77 runs to his overnight score to make 195 (184b, 24x4, 8x6) and put Maharashtra in a slightly comfortable position against Tamil Nadu on the second day of the Group B Ranji Trophy clash played at Pune.
Maharashtra were all out for 445 in their first essay. In reply, Tamil Nadu were 267 for four in 65 overs at stumps. Pradosh Ranjan Paul (74 batting) and Vijay Shankar (41 batting) were with their pads on. Tamil Nadu trail by 178 runs.
Ankit Bawne, captain of Maharashtra, on Tuesday evening, had said that his team would look to add another 150 to 200 runs on Wednesday. But that was not to be. Barring Ruturaj Gaikwad, none of the hosts' batters showed any pluck to get their team near the 500-run mark.
"Ruturaj played brilliantly. He played positively and thus could put runs on the board. He seems to be comfortable with both white-ball and red-ball cricket. There was not much difference in the way he plays both the formats," complimented M Venkataramana, head coach of the Tamil Nadu team. "Having said that, our bowlers bowled well in the morning and gave less than 100 runs and picked up four wickets. It was decent performance keeping in mind the wicket and conditions," added the former Tamil Nadu and India spinner.
Tamil Nadu in their chase had a disastrous start, losing Sai Sudharsan for a duck in the very fourth ball of the innings. Thereafter, N Jagadeesan (77) and B Aparajith did a mini rescue act. But soon Aparajith perished and it was left to Jagadeesan, B Indrajith to stitch a stand and set the ball rolling. The duo did not disappoint and added 94 runs for the second wicket.
Both Jagadeesan and Indrajith played positively and complimented each other. They did not get bogged down under pressure and handled the situation deftly. However, Indrajith and Jagadeesan got out after a while being done in by the bowling changes and slowing down of the wicket. "From the start we had, we managed to recover and put some runs on the board. Indrajith and Jagadeesan after being well set could have hung around for a while more. Disappointed a bit, we should have had more wickets in hand," opined Venkataramana.
After Indrajith and Jagadeesan's exit, Pradosh Ranjan Paul and Vijay Shankar forged a good stand and looked steady. Both had a lot of understanding about each other's game and went about the process in a professional manner. It was evident in their approach that they were keen to bring down the deficit to bag the all-important lead. "Both Pradosh and Vijay played in a mature manner. They complimented each other. On Thursday, we bank on the duo to continue from where they left and take us close to the lead. We have the likes of R Sai kishore who can chip in with some useful runs. But this duo must get a hundred each in order for us to bag a lead," signed off an optimistic Venkataramana.