Tamil Nadu take control on opening day against Assam

CHENNAI - Tamil Nadu made capital of winning the toss and fielding first by restricting Assam to 184 and then making 21 without loss on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here Monday.

Although the rains stayed away, the moisture content persuaded Tamil Nadu skipper Dinesh Karthik to insert the opposition.

Seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji picked up four wickets for 53 and left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas two for eight in just 6.5 overs as Assam batsmen failed to convert good starts into big scores. Some determined batting by tail-enders helped the visitors to get closer to the 200-mark.

Assam skipper Amol Mazumdar, the former Mumbai player, lasted a mere five deliveries before edging Balaji to Karthik behind the stumps and his exit had a decisive impact on Assams progress.

Opener Parvez Aziz was the top scorer for Assam with 36 off 87 deliveries before he became the one of Balaji’s victims. Balaji also claimed the wicket of former Tamil Nadu batsman Sridharan Sriram (14) who is appearing for Assam.

In reply, Tamil Nadu openers Abhinav Mukund and Anirudha Srikkanth were in no hurry and took all of 13 overs to make 21 as if in keeping with the slow pace of run-getting through the day.

scorebaord:

Assam (Ist innings) Dheeraj Jadhav c Dinesh Karthik b Sam 4; Parvez Aziz c Badrinath b Balaji 36; Sridharan Sriram c Arun Karthik b Balaji 14; Deepak Sharma (run out - Mukund/Dinesh Karthik) 27; Amol Mazumdar c Dinesh Karthik b Balaji 0; Tarjinder Singh c Dinesh Karthik b Ashwin 25; Khanin Saikia c Dinesh Karthik b Balaji 4; Dhiraj Goswami lbw Srinivas 25; Sujay Tarafdar c Sam b Srinivas 16; Arlen.Konwar (not out) 15; Ranjitkumar Mali (run out - Srinivas) 0. Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-6): 18

Total (all out, 72.5 overs): 184

Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-58, 3-67, 4-73, 5-118, 6-119, 7-123, 8-162, 9-181, 10-184

Bowling: Lakshmipathy Balaji 17-4-53-4; Chandrasekar Ganapathy 7-4-6-0; Ravichandran Ashwin 19-5-51-1; Sunil.Sam 11-2-36-1; Abhinav.Mukund 7-0-12-0; Rajagopal Satish 5-2-6-0; Aushik Srinivas 6.5-3-8-2.

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): Abhinav Mukund (batting) 8; Anirudha Srikkanth (batting) 13

Total (for no loss in 13 overs): 21

Bowling: Sujay Tarafdar 3-2-6-0; Ranjeetkumar Mali 5-3-6-0; Dhiraj Goswami 3-2-7-0; Arlen Konwar 1-1-0-0; Sridharan Sriram 1-0-2-0.