The Hindu : Sport : Sathish completes double century; TN gets two points

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

Sport

Sport

Sathish completes double century; TN gets two points

By Our Special Correspondent

GUWAHATI, DEC. 7. The Ranji Trophy Elite-B match between Tamil Nadu and Assam meandered into a draw at the Nehru Stadium here on the fourth day on Tuesday. The highlight of the day was the double hundred by Assam's R. Sathish before Tamil Nadu's mediumpacer M.R. Shrinivas wrapped up the remaining two wickets to give his side a vital 55-run first innings lead.

The lead gave Tamil Nadu two points which enabled it take its tally to nine points from three games. Assam continued to remain in the relegation zone with no points to its credit.

Tamil Nadu had reached 224 for four in 76 overs when the game was called off after the eighth mandatory over. Former India opener S. Ramesh earned a pair in his 100th first class game. Sridharan Sriram was unbeaten on 62 and R. Ramkumar was on 29 when play was called off.

Tamil Nadu got a scare this morning when the two overnight batsmen, Sathish and Raj Kapur Yadav, continued their good work in search of the 90 runs required to take the lead.

A well-directed bouncer by Shrinivas to the head of Yadav in the fifth over forced him to fend and the ball ballooned off the gloves to Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan at gully, who dived forward and took a good catch inches off the ground. Sathish and Yadav added 78 runs in 27.5 overs.

Having gained the vital breakthrough, Tamil Nadu thought it was just a matter of time. But Sathish had other ideas as he rotated the strike judiciously and continued to gather runs with some audacious shots.

Shrinivas scalps six

Sathish lofted S. Suresh for a six to jump from 198 to 204 — he had reached his hundred in a similar fashion off the same bowler on Monday.

As luck would have it, Konwar edged Shrinivas to wicketkeeper Vikram in the ninth over of the day, 38 minutes after the day's play began. Shrinivas's haul of six for 126 was his career best. Sathish's 204 not out (389m, 295b, 31x4, 1x6) exposed the limitations in the Tamil Nadu bowling. His double hundred was the first for Assam after 12 seasons. The last one came in 1991-92 on the same ground.

Tamil Nadu now plays Punjab in Chennai while Assam travels to Aurangabad to take on Maharashtra in the next set of matches beginning on December 13.

The scores:

Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 485.

Assam — 1st innings: P. Das c Badani b Shrinivas 17, S. Saikia lbw b Shrinivas 4, S.Z. Zuffri c Badani b Suresh 49, V. Saravanan c Sriram b Shrinivas 50, R. Sathish (not out) 204; P. Aziz c Ramesh b Raghuram 18, C. Rawat c Vidyut b Ramkumar 1, Sukhvinder c Vikram b Vidyut 10, Gokul Sharma c Sriram b Shrinivas 29, R.K. Yadav c Vidyut b Shrinivas 12, A. Konwar c Vikram b Shrinivas 4. Extras (b-6, lb-3, nb-23): 32. Total: 430.

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-47, 3-133, 4-134, 5-171, 6-178, 7-201, 8-331, 9-409.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Shrinivas 34.3-7-126-6, Suresh 24-6-73-1, Ramkumar 30-4-87-1, Raghuram 19-4-59-1, Vidyut 20-4-63-1, Badrinath 1-1-0-0, Sriram 2-0-13-0.

Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan b Sukhvinder 39, S. Ramesh b Yadav 0, Vikram Kumar c (sub) b Konwar 81, S. Suresh c Aziz b Konwar 3, S. Sriram (not out) 62, R. Ramkumar (not out) 29. Extras (b-7, lb-3): 10. Total (for four wkts.): 224.

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-53, 3-56, 4-174.

Assam bowling: Yadav 8-2-32-1, Das 6-4-10-0, Konwar 25-0-93-2, Sukhvinder 14-2-32-1, Sharma 8-2-18-0, Aziz 12-4-23-0, Saikia 1-0-6-0.

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