Skipper Devendra Bundela and Ankit Sharma built on the platform set up by Jalaj Saxena to put Madhya Pradesh in the driver’s seat on day two of its clash against Tamil Nadu at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Monday.
Resuming at 250 for four, MP ended on 432, riding on Bundela’s ton and an unbeaten 62 by Ankit. The latter inflicted further damage with the ball picking the first four wickets as Tamil Nadu went to stumps at 112 for four.
By the ninth over, the hosts had been reduced to 20 for 3 before B. Indrajith and Abhinav Mukund shared a 65-run stand.
After a sedate start on Sunday, Bundela came out attacking on day two, taking on the spinners. Like Saxena, he too had benefitted from the TN fielders’ largesse on Sunday; Bharat Shankar dropped him at silly-point when on three.
Bundela constructed two important partnerships: first 120 for the fifth wicket with Saxena, and then 53 with Ankit for the eighth wicket, to see the visitors past 400.
Off-spinner R. Malolan was the pick of the TN bowlers, with a seven for 135.
“While I did not want to change a lot with my pace, I tried to change my angles today by coming around the wicket to break the monotony,” he said.
After early setbacks, Indrajith counterattacked, using his feet against the MP spinners.
In one over, he took 14 runs off Ankit, but he took one too many a after he was stumped for a run-a-ball 39.
The scores:
Madhya Pradesh — Ist innings: Sanjay Mishra c Bharath Shankar b Shah 16 (56b, 2x4) , Jalaj Saxena c Sushil b Malolan 144 (310b, 11x4, 1x6), Harpreet Singh Bhatia c Shah b Malolan 65 (87b, 3x4, 4x6), Mohnish Mishra c Bharath Shankar b Malolan 8 (24b), Naman Ojha c Shah b Aushik Srinivas 13 (26b, 1x6), Devendra Bundela c&b Malolan 104 (231b, 15x4), Rameez Khan c Indrajith b Malolan 1 (5b), Anand Singh Bais c Bharath Shankar b Malolan 0 (1b), Ankit Sharma (not out) 62 (76b, 6x4, 3x6), Saransh Jain lbw b Aushik Srinivas 0 (17b), Puneet Datey b Malolan 3 (28b), Extras (nb-5, b-6, lb-5) 16; Total (in 142.4 overs) 432.
Fall of wickets: 1-43, 2-173, 3-195, 4-215, 5-335, 6-343, 7-343, 8-398, 9-413.
TN bowling: L. Balaji 16-8-28-0, R. Prasanna 4-1-10-0, Rahil Shah 24-2-104-1, Aushik Srinivas 42-16-109-2, R. Malolan 47.4-6-135-7, B. Aparajith 9-0-35-0.
Tamil Nadu — Ist innings: K. Bharath Shankar c Sanjay Mishra b Ankit Sharma 6 (6b, 1x4) , B. Aparajith c Mohnish Mishra b Ankit Sharma 5 (21b, 1x4) , Abhinav Mukund (batting) 37 (99b, 2x4) , Dinesh Karthik lbw b Ankit Sharma 6 (9b), B. Indrajith st Naman Ojha b Ankit Sharma 39 (39b 5x4, 1x6) , R. Prasanna (batting) 16 (48b, 2x4), Extras (b-1, lb-2) 3; Total (for four wickets in 37 overs) 112.
Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-14, 3-20, 4-85.
MP bowling: Ankit Sharma 14-1-60-4, Jalaj Saxena 13-3-29-0, Saransh Jain 8-1-13-0, Rameez Khan 2-0-7-0.
