Left handed all rounder S Sriram underlined his growing stature
in Indian cricket on Monday. With a fighting unbeaten 112 he
rescued Tamil Nadu from a poor start and helped the home team to
post a very respectable score of 252 for four wickets at close of
play on the first day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy tie
against Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram stadium.
The full value of Sriram's innings should be seen against
the background of Tamil Nadu being eleven for two at the end of
the seventh over. Sriram himself came in when Ashish Kapoor was
out for a duck to the first ball of the second over. He was caught
at gully by Venkatpathi Raju off MF Ahmed. A little later, Anand
George was leg before to NP Singh for four.
Sriram, who performed commendably as a member of the India A team
which recently went to the West Indies, found an able partner
in another left hander Hemang Badani. The two initiated the
recovery process with a third wicket partnership of 91 runs in
30.5 overs. Badani dominated the stand with some fine strokes and
when he was out for 52 off 93 balls he had hit five fours and a
six. Sriram by this time was set for a long innings and he
and Madanagopal consolidated the recovery by adding 119 runs for
the fourth wicket off 35.1 overs. Madanagopal was then run out
by Nandakishore for 55. The in form youngster faced 112 balls and
hit seven fours.
Sriram, who was 30 at lunch and 63 at tea, turned on the heat in
the last session. In the company of skipper Robin Singh,
Sriram proceeded to his century with a series of thrilling strokes
and by close had batted 344 minutes, faced 275 balls and hit ten
fours. The manner in which he paced his innings was exemplary.
Robin, content to let Sriram hold centre stage by stumps had
faced 51 balls to score seven runs.
Orissa had the upper hand at the end of the second day of their
East Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Bengal at the
Barabati stadium in Cuttack on Sunday. Replying to Orissa's first innings score of 370, Bengal were 53 for three at close.
Orissa resumed at 219 for two and a century by P Mullick and
half centuries by SS Raul (53) and P Jaichandra (64 not out)
helped them to prolong their innings. Mullick and Raul added
131 runs for the third wicket off 54.5 overs and then Jaichandra
and S Satpathy (18) increased the score by 54 runs during an
eighth wicket association. Mullick faced 246 balls for his 108,
hitting ten fours and a six. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was the most
successful bowler taking six for 86 off 32 overs.
When Bengal batted, opening bowler A Barick quickly removed
N Haldipur (15) and D Dasgupta (1) and then held the catch off Jaichandra's bowling to dismiss S Kalyani for 2, leaving Bengal
in some trouble at stumps.
Valuable knocks by RVC Prasad (78) and IG Srinivas (85) helped
Andhra to take the first innings lead over against Karnataka in
their South Zone Ranji Trophy league match at Kakinada on Sunday. Replying to Karnataka's 248, Andhra were 308 for six at close of
play on the second day.
The two batsmen came together when Andhra had lost four wickets
for 83 but then proceeded to turn the innings around with a
fifth wicket partnership of 144 runs off 34.2 overs. While Prasad
faced 159 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes, the more
aggressive Srinivas faced only 119 balls and hit 13 of them to
the ropes. The innings was kept going by tailenders NM Khan (26)
and YS Ranganath (26 not out). For Karnataka, Dodda Ganesh was
the most successful bowler with four for 95 off 28 overs.
Earlier a fine 83 by opener Mithun Beerala helped Karnataka
recover from a poor start to post a challenging total on the
opening day. Karnataka lost three wickets for 48 but Beerala
flayed tha attack for a breezy knock. He faced just 96 balls and
hit 17 fours. After his departure, the innings was kept going by
VST Naidu (32), SN Shiraguppi (43) and AR Yalvigi (37 not out). Ranganath was the pick of the Andhra bowlers, bagging five for
69 from 33.5 overs.