Tamil Nadu gain the upper hand against Kerala
Chennai, Dec. 7: Tamil Nadu gained the upperhand on Friday, reducing Kerala to 151 for 9 after making 268 in the first innings on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘ B’ match here. The home team bowlers came to the fore, striking at regular intervals to leave Kerala 117 runs behind with one wicket standing.
Left- arm medium- pacer T. Natarajan and left- arm spinner Rahil Shah with three wickets each did most of the damage while R. Sai Kishore took two wickets.
Earlier, debutant M Shahrukh Khan ( 92 not out) missed out on a welldeserved ton as the hosts collapsed from 249 for 6 to 268 all out. For Kerala, P Rahul was the only one to make a significant contribution with 59. Late resistance from Sijimon Joseph ( 28 batting) meant that Tamil Nadu would have to wait to wrap up the innings. Tamil Nadu, overnight 249 for 6, could only add 19 runs as Sandeep Warrier ( 5/ 52) and Basil Thampi ( 4/ 62) shared the four wickets to fall this morning. GROUP A
At Pune: Maharashtra 352 ( Swapnil Gugale 101, J S Pande 74, Akash Parkar 4/ 56) vs Mumbai 196/ 5 ( Siddesh Lad 70*, Aditya Tare 63). At Rajkot: Saurashtra 316 ( Jaydev Shah 97, K Makwana 46, J. Suchith 6/ 111) vs Karnataka 217 ( Karun Nair 63, Dega Nischal 58, DA Jadeja 7/ 103). At Vadodara: Chhattisgarh 129 & 174/ 4 ( Avnish Singh 79, Harpreet Singh Bhatia 43) vs Baroda 385 ( Yusuf Pathan 129*, Bhargav Bhatt 67, Onkar Verma 4/ 84). At Valsad: Gujarat 367 ( Piyush Chawla 130, Priyank Panchal 69, Amit Mishra 4/ 93) vs Railways 266/ 3 ( Nitin Bhille 109*, Arindam Ghosh 69*) GROUP B
At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 268 in 98 overs ( M Shahrukh Khan 92*, B. Indrajith 87, M. Mohammed 29, Sandeep Warrier 5/ 52, Basil Thampi 4/ 62) vs Kerala 151/ 9 in 75 overs ( P Rahul 59, Sijomon Joseph 28 ( batting), T. Natarajan 3/ 42, Rahil Shah 3/ 32). At Mohali: Himachal Pradesh 390 in 145.1 overs ( RR Dhawan 61, NR Gangta 58, A Kalsi 82, M Dagar 71, Sandeep Sharma 5/ 101) vs Punjab 75/ 9 in 30 overs ( M J Dagar 4/ 22). At Indore: Hyderabad 124 in 35.3 overs ( Himalay Agarwal 69*, Avesh Khan 7/ 24) vs Madhya Pradesh 539/ 4 in 136 overs ( Ajay Rohera 255 ( batting), Rajat Patidar 51, Yash Dubey 128 ( batting)). GROUP C
At Jaipur: Assam 108 & 109/ 3 ( Gokul Sharma 64*) vs Rajasthan 325 ( Mahipal Lormor 133, Salman Khan 71, Ranjit Mali 5/ 62). At Ranchi: Jharkhand 172 & 107/ 3 vs Odisha 201 ( Anurag Sarangi 58, Suryakant Pradhan 54). At Porvorim: Services 184 vs Goa 259/ 9 ( Darshan Misal 101*, Lakshay Garg 50, Diwesh Gurudev Pathania 4/ 74). At Jammu: J& K 290 & 98/ 7 ( Saurabh Kumar 5/ 21) vs Uttar Pradesh 188 ( Rinku Singh 66, Aksh Deep Nath 43, Parvez Rasool 4/ 47). At Agartala: Haryana 292 ( RM Dagar 114, CK Bishnoi 82, AS Sarkar 5/ 57, MB Mura Singh 4/ 74) vs Tripura 235/ 7 ( Pratyush Singh 76, MB Mura Singh 43*).