CHENNAI: Sandeep Warrier's 4 for 53 and useful contributions by Trilok Nag, Sai Kishore and Sonu Yadav, who all picked up two wickets each, came in handy for Tamil Nadu to bag a lead of five runs over Andhra on the second day of the Ranji Trophy being played at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
Resuming from the overnight score of 20 for 1 Andhra were all out for 177. Tamil Nadu were comfortably placed at 102 for 3 in 29 overs at stumps.
To begin with, Tamil Nadu pace attack made best use of the conditions and wicket in the morning to hit back at Andhra and reduced them to 63 for 5 in 18.4 overs.
Warrier, Nag and Yadav bowled with a lot of fire and zest to trouble the Andhra top order. Warrier and Yadav were unplayable at times, while Nag was a tad expensive but was able to get purchase.
Shaik Rasheed (87 not out) waged the lone battle for Andhra with his unbeaten 87 but little or no support from the other end meant he could not prevent Tamil Nadu from gaining the crucial lead.
"Very happy to contribute to the team's cause. All the more happy that we managed to get a lead, which was very important for us. Pleased with the way our attack performed and rose to the challenge defending a small total," said an elated Warrier told this daily after the day's play.
"We have been working hard to deliver and somehow things have not gone our way. Today everything fell in place and I am glad our attack showed a lot of character and determination to counter the Andhra batters," added the Kerala-born player.
The good thing about the Tamil Nadu attack on Sunday was that they were able to give vital breakthroughs unlike in the past when they allowed the game to drift away. Warrier accounted for Saurabh Kumar (30) and Sonu Yadav castled Kavuri Saiteja (2), the last man, to earn the lead.
"This game we were able to get the breakthroughs at the right time. Sai Kishore introduced himself at the right time and was rewarded with a couple of wickets. I was able to counter Saurabh and importantly Sonu dismissed the last man in a nick of time. So as a bowling unit we were able to perform to potential," insisted Warrier.
One could see happiness and joy in the face of M Senthilnathan, the chief coach of Tamil Nadu, for the first time as his boys showed character to fight back. "Really impressive show by the boys (bowlers). Defending such a small total is not that easy. They all bowled in the right areas and did not give the width to play the shots. When you hit the deck consistently on the right areas, your opponent batters are bound to make mistakes as they will lose patience. Sai Kishore also made the bowling changes deftly," said Senthilnathan.
Tamil Nadu began their second essay on a disastrous note losing N Jagadeesan in the very first over, Later Vimal Khumar fell caught behind by Srikar Bharat off Kalidindi Raju.
However B Sachin (51) and Pradosh Ranjan Paul (26 batting) did the rescue act. "In the second essay our batters performed better than the first innings. B Sachin was unnecessarily run out, but it happens. Sachin coming in after recovering from an illness was in good touch. He missed an opportunity to get a big score. However the boys are in the right frame of mind and I am sure they will add more runs on the board on Monday," signed off Senthilnathan.
