Report

Tamil Nadu-Goa tie set for keen climax

Tamil Nadu skipper S Sriram's declaration late on the third day today paves the way for an intriguing finish in their Ranji Trophy South Zone clash against Goa at the Rajendra Prasad Stadium in Margao

Sankhya Krishnan
03-Nov-2000
Tamil Nadu skipper S Sriram's declaration late on the third day today paves the way for an intriguing finish in their Ranji Trophy South Zone clash against Goa at the Rajendra Prasad Stadium in Margao. The visitors closed their second innings at 311/6 leaving their opponents to play out seven overs until stumps. Openers A Bhagwath and V Kolambkar did so with excruciating caution to finish at 4/0. That leaves Goa with the task of scoring a further 310 runs off 90 overs tomorrow to force an outright victory.
In the morning Tamil Nadu openers Sadagoppan Ramesh and Sridharan Sriram extended their stand to 137 before both departed in the space of three balls. Sriram was stumped by Bhagwath off Rane for 45 and in the following over Ramesh edged Kalekar to Amre at first slip with no addition to the total. Ramesh's 79 was briskly efficient, gathered off just 85 deliveries and including nine hits to the fence.
Three runs later Sridharan Sharath (1) and Vasanth Saravanan (0) were both taken out by Rane in the same over to leave Tamil Nadu tottering at 140/4. It was left to Rajat Bhatia and Reuben Paul to resuscitate the innings. Although Reuben was run out by Amre for 45, Bhatia was joined by another hardened campaigner in S Mahesh and they took Tamil Nadu through to tea at 311/6. The 21 year old Bhatia was undefeated on 69 (168 balls, 6 fours, 1 six). Rain forced an interruption at tea leading to the loss of two hours and spoiling Tamil Nadu's calculations. Sriram declared as soon as the game resumed at 17.00 hours to set the stage for tomorrow's denouement.