Tamil Nadu hold all the aces

Tamil Nadu, going from strength to strength, have taken a stranglehold over Orissa in their Ranji Trophy Super League group C match at the Barabati stadium in Cuttak. At stumps on Sunday, the visitors held an overall lead of 187 runs with nine second innings wickets intact.

Tamil Nadu who are leading the table in the group so far, have been the dominant team in this encounter. They finished on top on the first day thanks in the main to a record last wicket partnership of 137 runs between the last two batsmen Gokulakrishna and Rajat Bhatia. On the second day the bowlers helped them to consolidate. Orissa lost six wickets for 89 before wicketkeeper Y Mohanty (59 not out) and S Satpathy (35) added 63 runs for the seventh wicket off 13.2 overs. A last wicket stand of 34 runs off eight overs between Mohanty and Bipin Singh (6) stretched the Orissa total to 195. Mohanty faced 79 balls and hit ten fours. The bowling honours were shared by opening bowler S Mahesh (3 for 63) and off spinner Aashish Kapoor (3 for 45). Medium pacer Gokulakrishna followed his timely knock with two for 42.

In the remaining time, Tamil Nadu strengthened their position by hitting 55 for one in 21.4 overs in their second innings. Bhatia promoted to open the batting after his heroics in the first innings was unbeaten with 23 while left hander S Sriram was out in the last over of the day for 31.