The Hindu : Tamil Nadu takes first innings honours

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Tamil Nadu takes first innings honours

By Our Sports Reporter

Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan is jubilant after dismissing J.P. Yadav.

CHENNAI, MARCH 17. Even as J.P. Yadav reached his century with a thick edge off left-arm spinner Ramkumar, back in the pavilion, Abdul Jabbar commented that this was Tamil Nadu's best opportunity to dismiss the Railways' centurion.

The former South Zone batsman's logic was that a sense a satisfaction envelops a batsman as soon as he reaches the three-figure mark, resulting in a dip in his concentration level for the next 20 runs. And, that once he tides over the crucial phase, he develops a renewed zest.

As it turned out, Yadav was dismissed in the grey zone. Yadav was ninth out, caught behind off left-arm spinner Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan. The ball jumped and turned on hitting the rough to all but herald the end of the visiting team's challenge for first innings honours, on the penultimate day of the five-day Ranji Trophy semifinal at the Chidambaram Stadium here on Wednesday.

By stumps, the home team had scored 128 for two in its second essay, for an overall lead of 267. Left-handed opener Sadagoppan Ramesh was undefeated on 57. It is clear that Tamil Nadu proposes to use the concluding day for batting practice ahead of its title-clash against Mumbai later this month.

The fact, however, remains that as long as Yadav was in the middle, the host was uncertain of restricting the visitor to a score below its first innings tally of 481.

Resuming at 251 for five, the overnight pair of Yadav (then on 73) and Raja Ali added another 65 runs, batting through the first hour and a half of the day. Yadav duly went on to complete his 12th first-class century.

Vidyut, replacing the other left-arm spinner Ramkumar in the attack, provided the vital breakthrough when he had Ali caught at square leg off his very first delivery.

Yadav guided the side to 332 in the company of Sudhir Wankhede when Vidyut struck again, trapping the latter leg-before. The host's brief was pretty obvious: to put the pressure on the newcomers.

New man Harvinder Singh failed to keep his flick off medium pacer Ganapathy down and the pressure was now on Yadav. He was finally dismissed in the following over, bringing an end to what was a spirited challenge.

The scores:

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 481.

Railways — 1st innings: S. Kanolkar lbw b Suresh 31, S. Bangar c Badrinath b Ramkumar 47, T.P. Singh c Sharath b Ramkumar 24, Y. Goud c Kaarthick b Ganapathy 9, J.P. Yadav c Kaarthick b Vidyut 116, S. Verma c Ramkumar b Suresh 13, R. Ali c Vasudeva Das b Vidyut 61, S. Wankhede lbw b Vidyut 5, Harvinder Singh c Badrinath b Ganapathy 0, K. Parida b Tamilkumaran 4, M. Yadav (not out) 3; Extras (b-1, lb-8, w-6, nb-14) 29. Total 342.

Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-99, 3-113, 4-122, 5-181, 6-316, 7-332, 8-333, 9-333.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Tamilkumaran 27.1-10-72-1, Ganapathy 27-8-68-2, Ramkumar 35-17-76-2, Suresh 20-2-55-2, Vidyut 21-8-55-3, Sriram 3-1-7-0.

Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: S. Suresh b Harvinder 25, S. Ramesh (batting) 57, S. Sriram c Wankhede b Goud 38, S. Badrinath (batting) 7; Extras (nb-1) 1. Total (for two wkts., 52 overs) 128.

Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-108.

Railways bowling: Harvinder Singh 8-1-29-1, J.P. Yadav 2-0-6-0, M. Yadav 20-4-50-0, Parida 10-3-23-0, Bangar 7-2-7-0, Y. Goud 4-0-12-1, Kanolkar 1-0-1-0.

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