Tamil Nadu squander advantage to concede lead to Jharkhand

Big blow for visitors as B Indrajith retired hurt and is unlikely to take part in the rest of the match
File picture of B Indrajith
File picture of B Indrajith
Updated on: 
2 min read

CHENNAI: All-rounder Utkarsh Singh's 6 for 30 came in handy for Jharkhand to bag a lead of 79 runs over Tamil Nadu on the opening day of the final league round of the Ranji Trophy played at the Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur on Thursday.

On a day where 21 wickets fell (B Indrajith retired hurt and unlikely to take part in the match), Jharkhand have an upper hand at the moment as they have an overall lead of 84 runs. At stumps they were five for 1 in two overs in their second innings.

Opting to bat, Jharkhand made 185 thanks mainly due to a valuable 52 from Sharandeep Singh Bhatia (52) and useful contributions from Virat Singh (40) and Ankul Roy (46).

Tamil Nadu spinners Sai Kishore and Ajith Ram took three wickets each to run through the top order of Jharkhand.

''Plans went for us well in the morning as expected and we restricted them to under 200. We wanted to bowl wicket to wicket with slight variations and make the Jharkhand batters commit mistakes. I gave the ball a little bit of more air and kept bowling tidy lines. Sai Kishore put his experience to effective use at the other end,'' Ajith Ram told this daily.

After the Tamil Nadu bowlers did their job, batters were expected to contribute and go for the lead, but that was not to be. Barring opener Mohamed Ali who made 37, none of the Tamil Nadu batters applied themselves.

First N Jagadeesan got run out, later Pradosh Ranjan Paul fell cheaply. To complicate matters B Indrajith got injured and could not bat. ''We were hopeful of a good start and with the depth in our batting we were confident of taking a lead. But unfortunately, Jagadeesan got run out and Indrajith got injured. This put a bit of pressure on the middle order,'' added Ajith Ram.

A lot was expected from in form C Andre Siddarth and experienced Vijay Shankar to bail out the side, but that didn't happen as the former was trapped in front to Utkarsh for a blob, while the latter fell to the guile of Manishi.

''Andre's wicket was the turning point of the innings. He is in splendid form and the wicket not too threatening, one expected a big innings from him. But I am sure in the second innings he will come good as he is in brilliant touch. After him we thought with Vijay Shankar around, we could rally around him and take the lead. But that was not to be. It happens. It is part of the game. We will bounce back strongly in the second innings,'' said Ajith Ram.

Offie Utkarsh Singh read the surface well and cleverly varied the pace to trouble the Tamil Nadu batters by bowling wicket to wicket. Towards the close of play, the wicket began to behave oddly with some balls turning, while a few going straight.

''The wicket will increasing help spinners from Friday morning. We will go all out against them and get them all out for a decent score and chase down the same. We are confident and eager to fight it out,'' signed off Ajith Ram.

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