CHENNAI: Riding on S Ajith Ram's 4 for 68 and R Sai Kishore's 3 for 67, Tamil Nadu dismissed Assam for 266 in 100.2 overs in their first essay on the third day of the Ranji trophy Elite Group B match played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday. Allowing the follow-on, Assam were 66 for no loss in 34 overs at stumps, with Rahul Hazarika batting on 36. Assam trail by 208 runs.
Assam skipper Gokul Sharma and Abhishek played resolutely on Thursday morning and did not allow Tamil Nadu bowlers to get any purchases. Hence, TN bowlers had to bowl with a lot of zest to test the patience of the Assam batters and to break their resistance. Sai Kishore kept changing the bowling with pace/spin combo and spin/spin combo.
Sandeep Warrier, who was hitting the deck on the right areas, gave the breakthrough by castling Gokul Sharma with a peach of a delivery. Soon, Sai Kishore accounted for Abhishek. But once again, as one had seen in the previous games, a No. 7 batter troubled the TN bowlers. Sarupam Purkayastha (74) was the one who frustrated the Tamil Nadu attack. He was the last batter to get out; thanks to Sai Kishore's penetrative bowling.
Youngster Ajith Ram playing at his home ground, bagged two more wickets today. "The wicket today was a little slower, and later it assisted a bit, so we tried to bowl in the good areas. First-class cricket is definitely a bit higher than what I played before because the batters won't give away their wicket easily and it's not easy to bowl a lot of dot balls to a good batter. So, it is a bit more challenging than what I was doing before," said Ajith Ram on his first-class bowling experience.
Assam, in their second essay, opened with Subham Mandal and Rahul Hazarika. Since both were left-handers, Tamil Nadu skipper Sai Kishore made H Trilok Nag and B Aparajith open the attack. The idea was to put pressure on the duo with some close-in fielders.But the pair played resolutely, blocking the short-pitched balls and at times, even the full tosses. Assam's thought process was to play the 34 overs on Thursday and then the 90 overs on Friday to force a draw upon Tamil Nadu.
"The wicket has a lot of patches on it. Would have been happier had we got a couple of wickets today. By having fielded that long, players could have been tired. The Assam opening pair was also stubborn. Breaking their resistance is the key," said Venkataramana. Spinners would have a major role if Tamil Nadu were to bag full points. The first hour will be crucial, where seamers could operate a bit, and then the spinners should exploit the surface.