CHENNAI: An unbeaten century from Devdutt Padikkal (151 batting; 216b, 12x4, 6x6) and his 132-run stand with R Samarth for the second wicket enabled Karnataka to post 288/5 against Tamil Nadu on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Elite ‘C’ group, sixth round match being played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday.
Opting to bat, Karnataka had a poor start, losing opener Mayank Agarawal cheaply. The Karnataka captain was deceived by the turn from R Sai Kishore to be castled. Padikkal’s sixth first-class ton could not have come at the more appropriate time as his effort was the saving grace for the visitors as many experienced batters failed to adapt to the conditions.
Samarth, who made 57, played the role of anchor and was a perfect foil to Padikkal. The right-left combination frustrated Tamil Nadu bowlers with their stubborn effort. Sai Kishore, who got the initial purchase, was not at his best after a while by his tall standards. He tried Sandeep Warrier, M Mohammed, Vijay Shankar and Pradosh Ranjan Paul in turns but could not break the partnership.
Early in his innings, Padikkal was hit on the shoulder by Sandeep Warrier and needed some medical help on the field. Thereafter, he got accustomed to the surface to play a responsible innings. “Tamil Nadu is a strong opposition to come up against. And you know, they were pretty consistent with the bowling throughout the day.
So it wasn’t that easy to get those runs. But it was important that at least one of us tried to stay there and play along so that the rest of us could bat around us there,” Padikkal said after the day’s play. The 23-year-old earned the praise of J Abhiram, chairman of the Karnataka State Senior selection committee, who watched the day’s proceedings.
“It was a brilliant innings by Padikkal. After the bodily blows he recouped quickly and played a responsible innings to remain unbeaten. His partnership to (century stand) with Samarth too was vital. Wish he continues in the same vein on Saturday,” complimented Abhiram, former Karnataka all-rounder.
Tamil Nadu would have been happier had they restricted Karnataka to around 240 or 250. “No it’s ok (288 runs). I mean playing in Chepauk, it’s always tough for a fast bowler or for any team bowling first will always be challenging. But we came back. We have come back really well into the game, especially in the last session we bowled pretty well and we bowled tight as well. We picked a couple of wickets,” pointed out L Balaji, TN bowling coach. “Definitely, the way they batted, it was fantastic and we also let go with a couple of chances. But we will have to come again and show up with a good attitude on Saturday,” added the former TN captain.
With the surface aiding the spinners towards the end, it looks like it will deteriorate further. “There will be some assistance since we have witnessed it today and definitely there is some assistance the way R Ajith Ram bowled. He is our go to bowler when it comes to containing the runs and he has shown up again and he was a little bit unlucky today,” said Balaji.
Select scores: Karnataka 288/5 (Devdutt Padikkal 151 batting; Sai Kishore 3/94) vs Tamil Nadu; Kerala 265/4 in 90 ovs (Sachin Baby 110 n.o, Akshay Chandran 76 n.o; Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal 1/40, Akash Deep 1/55) vs Bengal; Assam 235/5 in 86 ovs (Parvej Musaraf 89, Abhishek Thakuri 77 n.o; Amod Yadav 2/48, Sakibul Gani 2/44) vs Bihar; Andhra 236/4 in 80 ovs (Ricky Bhui 90 n.o, KV Sasikanth 72, Karan Shinde 45 n.o; Yash Dayal 1/48, Saurabh Kumar 1/65) vs Uttar Pradesh; Delhi 264 all out in 71 ovs (Himmat Singh 60; Ayush Badoni 51; Vinay Galetiya 5/66) vs Himachal Pradesh; Uttarakhand 232/3 in 90 ovs (Vaibhav Bhatt 101 batting, Jiwanjot Singh 90) vs Odisha.