CHENNAI: A professional display by Gujarat enabled the home team to beat Tamil Nadu by 111 runs in the first round of the Ranji Trophy game played at Valsad on Monday. Chasing 298, Tamil Nadu were all out for 187 in their second essay.
On the final day, the R Sai Kishore-led side required 267 runs for a win with eight wickets in hand and a minimum of 90 overs. Keeping in mind the batting depth of the visiting team, the target seemed achievable if one paced their innings well and played to potential. However, that was not to be.
Pradosh Ranjan Paul, who remained unbeaten on 39, had said on Sunday that the first hour would be crucial for Tamil Nadu on Monday. And they lost their star batter B Sai Sudharsan who fell leg before to Chintan Gaja. This was a big setback as Sai Sudharsan is one of the batters who has the flair to a long innings. After losing Sai Sudharsan, the other batters went about the task in a steady manner with Sai Kishore and B Indrajith adapting to the situation in a reasonable way. The duo’s approach was such that it gave belief to one and all that Tamil Nadu was on track to get the target.
Suddenly, just before lunch Indrajith got out to PN Jadeja. Soon after lunch, Sai Kishore got out immediately. These twin dismissals meant that Tamil Nadu needed to change their approach and go for draw, which they eventually failed to do. “267 runs on a final day in 90 overs is gettable. So the approach should have been to go for a win and then if wickets fell in quick succession, then play out a draw.
That is the approach one (a team) normally takes on a final day,” said M Sanjay former Tamil Nadu cricketer and former head coach. “In these kind of situations patience and temperament are the virtues that a batter should possess. Unfortunately it did not work out for Tamil Nadu while against Gujarat,” he added.
Select scores At New Delhi: Delhi 148 & 145 in 46.4 ovs (Abin Mathew 5/39, Gaurav Yadav 3/49, Saurabh Yadav 2/43) lost to Puducherry 244 & 51/1 in 13.4 ovs; At Vadodara: Baroda 351 & 258/4 decl. bt Odisha 178 & 284 in 101.5 ovs (Shantanu Mishra 78, Anurag Sarangi 56, Sandeep Pattnaik 51, Suryakant Pradhan 46; Mahesh Pithiya 5/61); At Alapuzha: Uttar Pradesh 302 & 323/3 in 92.5 ovs decl. (Aryan Juyal 115, Priyam Garg 106) drew with Kerala 243 & 72/2 in 24 ovs (Rohan 42); At Valsad: Gujarat 36 & 312 in 84 ovs (Umang 89, Ripal Patel 81; R Sai Kishore 4/83) bt Tamil Nadu 250 & 187 in 81.2 ovs (Indrajith 39, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 39 n.o; Arzan Nagwaswalla 4/34); At Hubbali: Punjab 152 & 413 in 114.4 ovs (Prabhsimran Singh 100) lost to Karnataka 514/8 & 52/3 in 17 ovs; At Visakhapatnam: Bengal 409 & 82/1 in 25 ovs drew with Andhra 445 in 165.4 ovs (Ricky Bhui 175, Shoaib Mohammed Khan 56).
Full story: newindianexpress.com
