CHENNAI: Left-arm spinner Ajith Ram (4 for 30; match haul 8 for 74) and Sonu Yadav (4/50) took eight wickets among themselves to fashion Tamil Nadu’s innings win over Railways on the final day of the Ranji Trophy match played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
On Friday, Railways were 169 for 5 in 45 overs in their second essay at stumps and trailed Tamil Nadu by 40 runs. In fact, Bhargav Merai had hoped that his team would wipe out the deficit and make Tamil Nadu play again. His confidence was due to the fact that Railways still had five wickets in hand.
But in a dramatic turn of events on Saturday morning, Railways lost five wickets with an addition of just 15 runs to their overnight score. Railways could manage to play only 22 balls on the final day. Tamil Nadu, with this win got seven points and with 19 points in total in the tournament so far, are now second in the points table in their group.
Ajith Ram was pleased he got three of the five wickets that fell on the final day, but never expected the game to be over in just about 20 minutes. Drafted into the team in place of injured Sai Kishore, Ajith Ram gave a good account of himself and rose to the challenge. “It is a great feeling to win by such a big margin. It was absolutely teamwork. Everyone contributed to our win,” Ajith Ram told this daily after the win.
Ajith Ram was unplayable and he accounted for the in-form Mohammad Saif who put up a stubborn effort to make 52. “I did not try anything different, bowled wicket to wicket and a lot more quicker. Guess it worked. Sonu was bowling well at the other end and applying pressure. So as I said earlier It was a combined effort,” he insisted.
No one expected Railways to surrender so meekly. Even the visitors did not expect the match to finish in just 3.4 overs. “When we went out to play we were aware that we could win this game. We were also sure that we may have to chase a small target. Never did we imagine that their (Railways) innings would fold in such a manner,” observed Ajith Ram.
It was a professional display by Tamil Nadu where N Jagadeesan led from the front and marshalled his resources well.
“Jagadeesan led the team admirably. He gave me the freedom to bowl to my strength and the fields that he set for me and all the bowlers were spot on. Plus the team management’s decision to bowl first and send Shahrukh Khan opening was a master stroke,” the left-arm spinner signed off.