After Abhinav Mukund’s brilliant century on day one, it was another left-hander, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, who starred for Tamil Nadu on day two against Delhi in the final Ranji Trophy Group B match here on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old debutant showed plenty of promise and wasn’t awed by the stage of First Class cricket. He came up with a classy 78 that put TN — 432 in its first innings — in the driver’s seat.
In reply, Delhi did the hard work of seeing off the first 11 of its 13 overs before two wickets in quick succession allowed the home side to finish on top with the visitors ending the day at 35 for two.
It was another long day in the field for Delhi and yet again it was largely self-inflicted with more dropped catches on day two. It started with Vijay Shankar who was dropped at slip by Kunal Chandela off Navdeep Saini before Abhinav was dropped by Himmat Singh at mid-off.
Later Pradosh got lucky when Chandela missed a tough half-chance running backwards towards the boundary.
Nervous start
Pradosh, who walked in after overnight batsman Vijay Shankar was dismissed leg-before for 17, began cautiously, taking 16 balls to get off the mark. The youngster was edgy and nervous in search for his first run but once he got that, the left-hander quickly pounced on the Delhi bowlers, with his next five scoring shots being boundaries.
Pradosh was not afraid to step down to the spinners and played beautifully off the back foot with half off his boundaries coming square off the wicket. His first boundary came through a backfoot punch off pacer Subodh Bhati before he stepped out to loft off-spinner Shivam Sharma over the top. He had seven boundaries and a six before he got to his half-century.
The youngster later said he was distraught on missing out a hundred after he was trapped lbw off left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra (five for 142). He moved far too across to work it fine on the leg-side and missed an innocuous delivery.
At the other end, Abhinav, who resumed on 104, was dismissed for 134, caught at cover driving Shivam.
Later, Shahrukh Khan who joined Pradosh played a responsible innings before he was dismissed for 55 going for quick runs in the last session with the duo adding 82 for the sifth wicket.
The Delhi innings began with opener Chandela starting positively, hitting left-arm pacer T. Natarajan for five boundaries before he was run out off the penultimate ball of the day, thanks to Vijay Shankar’s brilliant pick-up and direct hit.
With the pitch at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium offering good assistance for the spinners, TN will try and push hard with its two-left arm spinners on day three.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: Abhinav Mukund c Rana b Shivam 134, N. Jagadeesan c Lalit b Vikas 8, B. Aparajith st Rawat b Shivam 6, B. Indrajith c Shorey b Vikas 86, Vijay Shankar lbw b Bhati 17, Pradosh Ranjan Paul lbw b Vikas 78, M. Shahrukh Khan c Shivam b Vikas 55, M. Mohammed c Himmat b Shivam 14, R. Sai Kishore lbw b Vikas 21, Mohan Prasath c Rana b Shivam 0, T. Natarajan (not out) 0; Extras (lb-3, nb 4, b-6): 13; Total (in 164.4 overs): 432.
Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-42, 3-197, 4-234, 5-281, 6-363, 7-396, 8-427, 9-428.
Delhi bowling: Saini 26-6-68-0, Bhati 21-7-39-1, Vikas 45.4-3-142-5, Shivam 44-6-105-4, Lalit 14-1-36-0, Rana 14-3-33-0.
Delhi — 1st innings: Kunal Chandela run out 27, Shivam Sharma lbw b Sai Kishore 7, Dhruv Shorey (batting) 0; Extras (nb-1): 1; Total (for two wkts. in 12.5 overs): 35.
Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-35.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Natarajan 4-0-23-0, Mohammed 3-1-5-0, Sai Kishore 3-1-4-1, Mohan Prasath 2.5-1-3-0.