CHENNAI: A captain’s knock of 109 by Denish Das paved the way for Assam to bag the all-important lead of 107 runs over Tamil Nadu on the third day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group D match played at Barsapara cricket stadium, Guwahati on Friday. Das’ century put the hosts in control of the game as they were all out for 445 in 146.2 overs.
In reply, Tamil Nadu were 8 for no loss in 4 overs at stumps. Das was patient and watchful as he continued to play to the merit of the ball and served the team’s cause. He was ably supported by Sibsankar Roy (69) and Swarupam Purkayastha (90).
Das cut all risks, stood rock solid at one, rotated the strike and guided his partners to forge a good stand. His 173-run partnership with Roy for the fourth wicket set the platform for other batters to exploit. Assam’s game plan and strategy worked on Friday.
They were well aware that after allowing Tamil Nadu to make 338 runs it would be difficult to beat the Sai Kishore-led side outright. So they first wanted to ensure the lead and then go with the flow. The top order avoided risks and did not play many aerial shots. Purkayastha, during his knock, struck three sixes.
‘’It is a good effort by Assam. Denish’s ton has a lot of value as it came against a strong side. All these efforts will come in handy when one wants to go up the ladder. This is the first step for Denish. The competition is very high, he has to score heavily and consistently in order to be noticed,’’ said former national selector and spinner Venkatapathy Raju.
After India’s poor results against New Zealand, the Board has decided to give more importance to domestic cricket. ‘’Players will now have to perform in domestic cricket. I am not sure, at this current juncture whether players from the Under-19 level or IPL will graduate to the senior national side.
From now on one must go through the grind like in the past. So for the likes of Denish, and Swarupam, their target must be to play the Duleep Trophy for their zone. So they need to perform extremely well in the remaining Ranji games to make the Duleep Trophy cut,’’ opined Venkatapathy Raju.
For Tamil Nadu, it was a forgettable day. They missed the services of their skipper Sai Kishore who could not bowl. Once again Tamil Nadu let their opponents lower order to put some runs on the board. Assam would have posted a bigger lead but failed to do so thanks to Pradosh Ranjan Paul, who later bagged three wickets to apply the brakes. It may be recalled that in the game against Delhi, they lost a good opportunity to go for a win after dominating most part of the match. Having conceded the lead Tamil Nadu will be under pressure when they bat on Saturday as they still trail by 99 runs.
Select scores
Group A: In Mumbai: Mumbai 602/4 decl vs Odisha (f/o) 285 & 126/5 in 42 ovs (Aasirwad Swain 46 batting; Himanshu Singh 3/45); Group B: In Vizianagaram: Uttarakhand 338 & 128/9 decl in 49 ovs (Cheepurapalli Stephen 3/25, KV Sasikanth 3/27) vs Andhra 146 & 8/1 in 4.1 ovs; In Ahmedabad: Puducherry 361 vs Gujarat 359/9 in 118 ovs (Priyank Panchal 200; Sagar Udeshi 4/72, Ankit Sharma 2/69); In Jaipur: Hyderabad 410 & 36/0 in 7 ovs vs Rajasthan 425 in 108.2 ovs (Mahipal Lomror 111, Shubham Garhwal 108; Tanay Thyagarajan 3/104, Chama Milind 2/73, Rohit Rayudu 2/65); Group C: In Bengaluru: Bengal 301 & 127/3 in 44 ovs (Sudip Chatterjee 48) vs Karnataka 221 in 82.1 ovs (Abhinav Manohar 55; Ishan Porel 4/54, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal 3/65); In Thiruvananthapuram: Uttar Pradesh 162 & 66/2 in 18 ovs vs Kerala 395 in 124.1 ovs; Group D: In Guwahati: Tamil Nadu 338 & 8/0 in 4 ovs vs Assam 445 in 146.2 ovs (Denish Das 109, Sibsankar Roy 69, Swarupam Purkayastha 90; Pradosh Ranjan Paul 3/45); In Chandigarh: Delhi 276 & 250 in 86.1 ovs (Sanat Sangwan 70, Yash Dhull 58; Nishunk Birla 6/65) vs Chandigarh 324 & 46/0 in 11 ovs.