The Hindu : Tamil Nadu on the verge of an outright win

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 12, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

Tamil Nadu on the verge of an outright win

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai Dec. 11. Tamil Nadu was on the verge of an outright victory with Assam, set a target of 454 in a minimum of 138 overs, barely afloat at 158 for six, at the end of the third day in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group `B' match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, here, on Thursday.

The home side declared its second innings at 277 for six, 25 minutes after lunch, with No. 4 S. Badrinath notching up his second century of the season, remaining unbeaten on 115.

For Assam, Vasanth Saravanan was batting on a fighting 61 (111b, 10x4) but the other batsmen did not really put mind over matter in a demanding situation on a pitch still not playing any tricks. R. Sathish certainly suffered a rush of blood when he jumped down the track to left-arm spinner R. Ramkumar, missed the line, and saw his stumps being rearranged in the closing stages of the day.

Just five runs later, at 140, Assam lost its captain, the left-handed Sukhwinder Singh, who dabbled with an away going delivery from paceman D. Tamilkumaran, and `keeper Dinesh Kaarthick, pouched a brilliant catch.

Earlier, openers S. Saikia and Parag Das were caught behind off C. Ganapathy and Tamilkumaran respectively, Kiran Powar was adjudged leg-before to captain and support pacemen S. Suresh, and Z. Zufri was picked up at silly point off Ramkumar. All of them had a reasonable look at the bowling, but failed to consolidate.

In the morning, Badrinath, who drove fluently through the off-side, cut with aplomb and flicked with panache, reached his third Ranji hundred lofting Kiran Powar, bowling off-spin, over mid-wicket. Badrinath, who was reprieved at 76 when Orlan Konwar put him down at covers off Powar, and Suresh (73, 162b, 8x4) added 117 for the third wicket in 33.5 overs.

With Tamil Nadu not enforcing the follow-on, it has lost the opportunity of winning a bonus point. A team gains a bonus point, only if it wins by an innings or by ten wickets.

The scores:

Tamil Nadu— Ist innings: 310

Assam— Ist innings: 134

Tamil Nadu— 2nd innings: S. Suresh c Raghuram b Powar 73; D. Kaarthick lbw b Yadav 0; S. Sriram b Konwar 22; S. Badrinath (not out) 115; Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan c S. Singh b Raghuram 30; R. Ramkumar c & b Raghuram 5; S. Viswanathan c Zufri b Raghuram 19; C. Ganapathy (not out) 10; Extras (b-1, w-2) 3; Total (for six wkts. decl. ) 277.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-49, 3-166, 4-212, 5-218, 6-260.

Assam bowling: G. Dutta 3-1-13-0; R.K. Yadav 10-0-48-1; R. Satish 3-0-8-0; P. Das 10-4-20-0; O. Konwar 11-2-45-1; R. Raghuram 20-2-85-3; K. Powar 15-1-49-1; S. Saikia 1-0-2-0; V. Saravanan 1-0-6-0.

Assam — 2nd innings: S. Saikia c Kaarthick b Ganapathy 21; P. Das c Kaarthick b Tamilkumaran 14; K. Powar lbw b Suresh 16; V. Saravanan (batting) 61; Z. Zufri c S. Sriram b Ramkumar 16; R. Satish b Ramkumar 11; S. Singh c Kaarthick b Tamilkumaran 4; G. Dutta (batting) 8; Extras (b-1, lb-3, w-2, nb-1) 7; Total (for six wkts.) 158.

Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-35, 3-72, 4-111, 5-135, 6-140.

Tamil Nadu bowling: M.R. Shrinivas 3-0-6-0; D. Tamilkumaran 10.2-2-39-2; R. Ramkumar 14-3-41-2; C. Ganapathy 8-1-26-1; S. Suresh 7-3-23-1; Vidyut 5-1-12-0; S. Badrinath 0.4-0-7-0.

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