Bhatia leads the way for Tamil Nadu on opening day

After a rather innocuous outing in the last round against Kerala, Hyderabad came up against a rather rock solid Tamil Nadu batting line up in their South Zone Ranji Trophy match at the Neuclear Fuel Complex ground at Hyderabad on Wednesday. Helped by a fine century by opener Rajat Bhatia, the visitors were 273 for 2 when stumps were drawn on the opening day.

Opting to bat, Tamil Nadu were provided with a commendable 184 run opening stand by Sridharan Sriram (98) and Rajat Bhatia (132 not out) in 51.4 overs. Bhatia was more the sedate partner prefering to play the sheet anchor role. The hosts though toiling long and hard were unsuccessful as the duo took the Tamil Nadu into lunch with the score line reading 125/0. The two stayed on till late afternoon and before long took the partnership to nearly 200.

Just two runs short of a well deserved century, Sriram became the first casualty for the day in the 52nd over. Sriram found himself struggling to regain his crease as the wicketkeeper M Srinivas whipped off the bails to run him out. In a 206 minute stay at the crease the southpaw, who relished displaying his strokes, took just 158 balls while managing to find the signboards on 13 occasions.

Then Badrinath (15), who replaced Sriram lasted for just 39 balls and departed for a catch to Raju off NP Singh. But his partner Rajat Bhatia, found ample company in Sridharan Sharath (23 not out) and during the unbeaten 55 run stand they took the score past the 250 run mark. Bhatia in the course of his 360 minute stay at the centre has so far faced 263 balls and found the boundary rope 14 times.