da realbet： Tamil Nadu were in the box seat after bowling out Punjab for 258 onthe opening day of their Ranji Trophy quarter final match at the MAChidambaram Stadium in Chennai today
Sankhya Krishnan30-Mar-2000Tamil Nadu were in the box seat after bowling out Punjab for 258 onthe opening day of their Ranji Trophy quarter final match at the MAChidambaram Stadium in Chennai today. The highlight of the Punjabinnings was an invasion of the outfield by a snake which held up playfor a few minutes before some intrepid members of the ground staffventured to drive it off the ground. In the nine overs that remained,an enterprising run a minute opening wicket stand between S Ramesh andS Sriram took Tamil Nadu to 40 without loss at stumps.S Sharath won the toss and elected to field on a wicket having a tingeof green and also providing a fair bit of bounce for their fourpronged medium pace attack (Kumaran, Mahesh, Gokulakrishnan andBhatia) to exploit. Robin Singh preferred to attend a video release inSharjah of Anil Kumble’s ten wicket haul rather than give hiscompatriots here a hand while Ravneet Ricky had to sit out because ofa finger injury sustained in the last Super League match againstRailways.The Tamil Nadu attack was unable to make an early breakthrough asVikram Rathour and Reetinder Sodhi added 56 for the first wicket inalmost 16 overs. Rathour was fortunate to be grassed by Madanagopal atsecond slip off Kumaran with his score on 12 while Sodhi too had anawkward moment when he gloved one, that kicked more than he expected,just short of forward short leg. Mahesh tried bouncing out Rathour byemploying two fielders in the deep behind the wicket on the leg sidebut the batsman refused to jump to the bait. It was Rajat Bhatia whostruck first blood when he had Sodhi caught behind by the keeperReuben Paul for 22.The contest hottened up when Aashish Kapoor was brought on to try anddislodge his brother in law Vikram Rathour from the crease. Kapoortossed one up and Rathour drove him through the covers for four tobring up his fifty. But in his next over Kapoor got his man asRathour, giving him the charge, failed to get hold of the ball and wascaught by Mahesh a few yards behind the bowler’s head for 57. Punjabwent into lunch at 104/2 and off the first ball after resumption,Dharmani was caught behind off Kapoor as he played forward. Yuvraj wasdealing only in boundaries, the pick of which was a backfoot drivethrough extracover, and was caught down the leg side off Kumaran for44, out of which 40 had come in boundary hits.A dogged 47 run seventh wicket stand between Harminder Jugnu andSandeep Sharma then frustrated the Tamil Nadu attack but the finalthree wickets fell in the space of four runs to terminate the Punjabinnings at 258. S Mahesh was the best bowler on offer for Tamil Naduwith figures of 3/55 and Reuben Paul also distinguished himself withfour catches behind the sticks. Tamil Nadu’s over rate was painfullyslow and play had to be extended by an hour and twenty minutes, upto5.50 p.m.