Tamil Nadu hold advantage

Tamil Nadu held a distinct advantage at stumps on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Super League match against Saurashtra at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Replying to the home team's imposing first innings total of 471, the visitors were a very shaky 189 for five at close of play.

In fact, Saurashtra reached this score only because of two notable partnerships. After openers Vasanth Kumar and AA Merchant were out with only 16 runs on the board, Saurashtra recovered, thanks to a third wicket stand of 92 runs off 20 overs between skipper Sitanshu Kotak (35) and PJ Bhatt (61). While Kotak faced 68 balls and sent four of them to the ropes, Bhatt faced 85 balls and had eight boundary hits.

Just when Saurashtra seemed to be making a fitting reply to Tamil Nadu's first innings total, medium pacer S Mahesh struck twice, having Kotak caught behind the wickets by Reuben Paul and bowling BM Jadeja in quick succession. And when off spinner Aashish Kapoor bowled Bhatt, Saurashtra were in dire straits at 122 for five.

However FU Bambhani and HJ Parsana then came together for the second notable stand of the innings and by close had added 67 runs off 18.4 overs during an unbroken sixth wicket partnership. Parsana was the more aggressive of the two and by close had faced 53 balls and hit six fours and a six in his 39, while the more obdurate Bambhani had faced 64 balls and had hit two fours in his 23.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu resuming at 348 for four, probably got less than they would have expected. Sharath, 58 overnight, was out for 76 and he was followed in the next over by Madanagopal, the other overnight batsman, for 23. Brief contributions from Robin Singh (20), Reuben Paul (25) and S Mahesh (33 not out) kept the innings going till shortly after lunch. Robin and Reuben added 47 runs for the seventh wicket off 7.5 overs while Mahesh, who hit two fours and three sixes in his 56 ball knock and T Kumaran (6) put on 32 runs off 8.3 overs for the last wicket.