A fluent half-century from Abhinav Mukund (57, 142b, 4x4, 2x6) was the highlight as Tamil Nadu ended day one on 144 for four in its Ranji Trophy clash against Railways here on Sunday.
Gloomy skies and intermittent rain ensured that there would be only 49 overs of play.
In a cautious start, Tamil Nadu scored only 39 in the first 20 overs for the loss of two wickets. It loosened up a tad when Dinesh Karthik joined Abhinav and picked up pace when Indrajith joined the latter.
There was turn and bounce for the bowlers from the outset. It showed with spinners bowling all but two overs in spite of the conditions being overcast.
Bharath Shankar was the first to go, caught at short leg for four runs off Arnab Nandi. The off-break bowler then induced a leading edge off Aparajith’s bat and snapped up the return catch to account for the second wicket. Bowling in tandem, Arnab and left-arm spinner Ashish Yadav were tidy. The latter in particular was effective against Dinesh Karthik, beating him outside the off stump on a couple of occasions.
But Abhinav seemed untroubled. He often rocked back and played the ball late. His two sixes straight down the ground were the stand-out shots off the front foot. However, he couldn’t capitalise on yet another start, after scores of 37 and 48 against Madhya Pradesh in the previous match, and fell for 57.
“I am very disappointed,” said Abhinav. “I have been batting well recently. I was shaping up for a big score.”
Abhinav and B. Indrajith, who came in after Karthik was out leg-before, put on 70 runs for the fourth wicket. Indrajith seemed a bit troubled by spinner Prashant Awasthi, but gathered himself to remain unbeaten on 39.
Earlier Tamil Nadu elected to bat and made one change to its side, bringing in R. Sathish in place of L. Balaji.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: K. Bharath Shankar c Anustup Majumdar b Arnab Nandi 4, Abhinav Mukund c Mahesh Rawat b Ashish Yadav 57, B. Aparajith c & b Arnab Nandi 27, Dinesh Karthik lbw b Ashish Yadav 15, B. Indrajith (batting) 39, R. Prasanna (batting) 0; Extras (b-1, nb-1): 2; Total (for four wkts. in 49 overs): 144.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-39, 3-74, 4-144.
Railways bowling: Anureet Singh 2-1-1-0, Arnab Nandi 17-4-62-2, Ashish Yadav 19-2-49-2, Avinash Yadav 5-2-12-0, Prashant Awasthi 6-2-19-0.
Toss: Tamil Nadu.
