Rain plays spoilsport on final day

Rain severely curtailed the final day of Tamil Nadu's South Zone Ranji Trophy encounter against Karnataka at the IIT-Chemplast ground in Chennai on Saturday. Only 14.4 overs were possible during which Tamil Nadu contrived to lose four wickets to the Karnataka new ball pair of Mansur Ali Khan and Dodda Ganesh who made full use of the overcast conditions.

Tamil Nadu collected five points by virtue of their 223 run first innings lead, leapfrogging to the top of the zonal table with 13 points from two games while Karnataka are at eight from the same number of encounters.

Tamil Nadu resumed at 77 without loss on the fourth morning, play starting 45 minutes late due to overnight rain. Rajat Bhatia was the first to go, caught by Dharmichand off Khan for 34 in the day's second over. Wicket keeper Reuben Paul, having gained promotion to the No.3 spot, failed to make use of the opportunity. He was bowled by Ganesh for two.

S Badrinath, fresh from his first innings century in only his second Ranji match, fell to Khan for 48 to leave Tamil Nadu at 92/3. Eight runs later Khan scalped his third victim, bowling R Satish, who finished an undistinguished first class debut with scores of 11 & 7. The hosts were on 114/4 when play was interrupted due to a light shower at 11.29 am. The umpires called off play at 2.00 pm after two inspections.