CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu skipper R Sai Kishore led from the front to bag four wickets (4/40) as he in the company of Gurjapneet Singh, who also took a four-fer (4/34), bundled out Uttarakhand for a paltry 134 in 56.2 overs on the first day of the second round of the Elite Group D Ranji Trophy match played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Sunday.
In reply, Tamil Nadu were comfortably placed at 85 for 2 in 27 overs. Opener N Jagadeesan (37), when well set for a long innings was castled by Anvesh Sudha. Tamil Nadu were trailing by 49 runs.
About an hour's play was lost due to overnight rain and early morning showers as the outfield was still wet. The match commenced at 10:30 am and play was called off at 5:28 pm due to bad light.
Tamil Nadu had a disastrous start losing Vimal Khumar the fourth ball of the innings to Devendra Bora. After that Jagadeesan and Pradosh Ranjan Paul played with ease. They chose the right delivery to attack and the pair added 64 runs for the second wicket.
Pradosh Ranjan Paul was batting on 37 with B Indrajith (9) for his company at stumps. As reported by this daily, Khumar, Ajith Ram and Gurjapneet made it to the playing XI. But the surprise inclusion was the third spinner Hemchudeshan in place of all-rounder Sonu Yadav. Nevertheless the gamble worked on the first day.
Put into to bat, Uttarakhand had a poor start. Aaarav Mahajan began confidently striking Gurjapneet for two boundaries in an over. Soon the lanky left-arm pacer realized that he was bowling a bit wide giving room for the batter to go for his shots and changed the lines and bowled closer to the wicket. This did the trick as he got the arc and bounce to induce Aarav to poke the ball to Jagadeesan behind the stumps.
After a short while Gurjapneet changed his lengths and pace to make Dega Nischal miss the line to be trapped plum in front. Now a lot depended upon skipper Kunal Chandela and the man in form Lakshya Raichandani. Lakshya started off with a boundary in extra cover off Gurjapneet.
Kunal, however, disappointed as he got out to Gurjapneet caught in the second slip by Indrajith. This wicket upset the concentration of Lakshya and just before lunch he spooned a sharper one from Sai Kishore to Khumar in the slips, who did well to take a low diving catch. Thus the visitors were reduced to 41 for 4 at the stroke of lunch.
Gurjapneet was happy with his performance. He had been with the India A team in Puducherry for the white ball leg. But coming to Ranji, he looked very settled and got his rhythm straight away. And one cannot forget the angles that he got to tease the Uttarakhand batters. "Yeah (feel good with performance). I'm just trying to keep it normal and whatever. I have been practicing for a long time. So coming from white ball to red ball, it feels normal. I'm just practicing everything, like before the match. I used to practice a lot with both (red and white) balls," said Gurjapneet after the game.
"So coming into Ranji Trophy, you know workload is high, so I have to keep maintaining that workload. So I'm just trying to do that and using the angles according to the wicket and batters. So it was about understanding the batters and how they are reacting. So I'm just doing that, that's it," he added.
He believed that the three-spinner formula will work for Tamil Nadu. "Yeah, I feel wicket has a good turn and bounce in it at the moment, but later on you'll see in the second or third, four day it will help the spinners more. But the morning of Day 1 it was very good, like a bit of moisture was there on the wicket. Both ends are helping the spinners as Sai Kishore got wickets at both ends. We haven't seen the marks (foot) yet, but I think maybe on the second, third, four day it'll (foot) come to enable the spinners to exploit," said Gurjapneet.
In the first session the Tamil Nadu fielding was good and the players were alert and focused.
After the break, Uttarakhand lost two quick wickets and were reeling at 44 for 6 in 24 overs. However, Avneesh Sudha and Mayank Mishra put up a stubborn effort. The Tamil Nadu fielding too dipped as a couple of run out chances were fumbled and catches too were dropped. While on 27, Mayank was dropped by Jagadeesan off Sai Kishore. Avneesh after reaching his half century, stepped out to play an ambitious shot, missed the line to be stumped by Jagadeesan off Sai Kishore.
"Nothing special. I was reading the wicket, conditions and playing accordingly. My main thought was to put our team in a good position. That was what was going through my mind, and that's how I managed to score 50," said Avneesh.
Speaking on the surface, he said, "If you apply yourself, you can score runs to some extent. Tamil Nadu bowled well and took some good catches. They bowled in good areas. Also, given the weather conditions, we started batting early in the morning, when the conditions tend to help the bowlers."
He also insisted that the defensive approach led to the batting collapse. "Yes. On the first day, especially in the first session, the wicket usually offers some assistance to the bowlers. The weather was cloudy, and when their bowlers bowled in good areas, our batters tried to defend, but the ball took the edge a few times. The conditions favoured the bowlers in the morning. That's also why they chose to bowl after winning the toss. They bowled in good areas. And when wickets keep falling, the approach automatically becomes more defensive," he said.
Avneesh was also surprised that the first day wicket helped both fast bowlers and spinners. "Yes, both. The fast bowlers got assistance because the ball was cutting off the pitch, and the spinners were getting a good turn. Both fast bowlers and spinners had help from the wicket. But later, after lunch, when the sun came out for a session or two, the wicket became a little better for batting."
