Rahil used helpful conditions and stunned Baroda with figures of 5 for 44, helping Tamil Nadu successfully defend a modest target of 122. Hooda’s audacious and entertaining 19-ball 32, studded with two sixes and three fours, went in vain as Baroda folded for 114 after a manic two-hour’s play.
Agencies
Chennai
Deepak Hooda unleashed his Indian Premier League avatar, but it was Rahil Shah who emerged victorious and helped Tamil Nadu prevail in a nail-biting Ranji Trophy clash against Baroda in Chennai on Saturday.
Rahil used helpful conditions and stunned the visitors with figures of 5 for 44, helping Tamil Nadu successfully defend a modest target of 122. Hooda’s audacious and entertaining 19-ball 32, studded with two sixes and three fours, went in vain as Baroda folded for 114 after a manic two-hour’s play.
After rain washed out the entire first session, Hitesh Solanki, the debutant Baroda opener, started confidently with a cover drive off the second ball of the day from Rahil Shah, but the left-arm spinner had the last laugh. In the third over of the day, Rahil got one to kick from the surface and induced a bat-pad catch to provide the first breakthrough.
He nearly had another when he got Aditya Waghmode to edge to first slip, but the wicket was denied as replays showed the bowler had overstepped. The Baroda skipper, on zero then, hung around and survived a few testing overs of numerous appeals and consequent warnings by the umpires, gradually chipping away at the target.
But given the nature of the pitch, the spinners were always at the thick of the action. Malolan Rangarajan threatened to take the game away in a space of eight balls, grabbing three vital wickets. He first had Waghmode edge to first slip, where Aparajith took a sharp low catch to his left, and just one ball later, Malolan tempted Devdhar to sweep to deep backward square-leg.
Much depended on Yusuf Pathan, who had made a crucial 41 in the first innings with his aggressive approach. Abhinav Mukund, the Tamil Nadu captain, tempted Yusuf with in-out fields and got his reward when the big right-hand batsman lofted Malolan to deep mid-wicket.
All of a sudden, Baroda found themselves at 50 for 4 with two new batsmen in the middle. The past two days showed how difficult it was for new batsmen to adjust to the pitch but, luckily for Baroda, the men in the middle were ones who didn’t bother trying to acclimatise to the conditions.
Hooda and Pandya realised that there was no use prodding away and that the only way to survive was to attack. And they did so, in style. Hooda started a stunning counter-attack, launching Rahil for two consecutive boundaries through long-on and an audacious inside-out six over long-off in an over.
He followed it up with an even more daring shot in the next over, unleashing a monstrous switch-hit off Malolan that sailed over deep mid-wicket. Pandya took a cue from his partner and lofted DT Chandrasekar over the long-off fence and, in a space of 15 balls, the target came crashing below 40.
The momentum had changed once again, but that wasn’t the end of the story.
Chandrasekar, the debutant left-arm spinner, triggered yet another twist to the tale and removed Pandya and Hooda in quick time. Both batsmen were deceived by extra flight ” Pandya edged behind and Hooda dragged his feet out to be stumped ” and Tamil Nadu were back in the game.
The equation now: 24 runs, four wickets.Another passage of play with countless appeals that required the umpires to intervene followed. Pinal Shah and Swapnil Singh survived for a while, but Rahil refused to give up. All the pressure created on the umpires seemed to work when Pinal Shah was dubiously given caught behind off Rahil in the 33rd over and, two balls later, Bhargav Bhatt lofted the fellow left-arm spinner to deep mid-wicket to leave the game in the balance once again.
Baroda were just 11 runs away but Rahil, albeit with the help of the umpire, took Tamil Nadu home, dismissing the last two batsmen in his next over. Murtuza Vahora received another harsh decision when he was given leg before, although replays showed he had got an inside edge, and Sagar Mangalorkar edged to first slip to complete the thriller.
BOX
Batsmen steer Goa to 24-run lead over Hyderbabd
Sagun, Darshan,Rituraj and Swapnil stroke fifties
THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Hosts Goa put up an impressive batting performance to take a slender 24-run lead against Hyderabad at the end of Day 3 of their Group C Ranji Trophy match at GCA academy grounds, Porvorim on Saturday.
At stumps, Goa, in their first innings were 349 for 5 in 114 overs as Sagun Kamat top-scored with an unbeaten 81. Swapnil Asnodkar (53), Rituraj Singh (59) and Darshan Misal (67) led solidity to the Goan innings with useful half-centuries. What denied Hyderabad was some consistent batting by Goa's middle order who stitched valuable partnerships to ensure a good solid platform was built and Hyderabad's first innings score of 325 was surpassed.
Sudeep Tyagi and Vishal Sharma were the most successful wicket-takers for Hyderabad returning figures of 2 for 92 and 2 for 66 respectively.
What stood apart on the day was brilliant application by Goa's batsmen, who anchored the innings with determination after starting the day at 47 for 1. Skipper Dheeraj Jadhav missed out on a fifty by four runs in an otherwise good batting display by the hosts.
BRIEF SCORES
Tamil Nadu (toss) 125 (Aparajith 44, Yusuf 4-29, Bhatt 4-32) and 155 (Bhatt 6-60)beat Baroda 159 (Shah 4-38, Chandrasekhar 4-50) and 114 (Hooda 32, Shah 5-43) by 7 runs in Chennai. Tamil Nadu 6, Baroda 0.
Saurashtra (toss) 307 (Jackson 97, Jadeja 91, Pujara 10) beat Tripura 103 (Jadeja 6-27) and (f/0) 86 (R Jadeja 5-45, D Jadeja 4-12) by an innings and 118 runs in Rajkot. Saurashtra 7, Tripura 0.
Services (toss) 161 and 78 for 1 beat Jharkhand 45 (Pathania 6-19) and 192 (Tiwary 56, Virat 51, Pathania 7-64) by 9 wickets in Delhi. Services 6, Jharkhand 0
(Stumps) Assam 194 (Verma 57, Das 55) and 30 for 1 need 358 to beat Karnataka (toss) 187 (Bhavane 65,Syed Mohammed 7-44) and 394 for 8 decl. (Samarth 131) in Guwahati.
(Stumps)Maharashtra 256 for 3 (Gugale 91) trail Haryana (toss) 335 (Rana 157, Sehwag 92) by 79 runs in Pune.
(Stumps) Rajasthan (toss) 240 (Chahar 50) and 20 for 1 need 316 to beat Delhi 138 (Gambhir 24, Chahar 5-60) and 437 for 9 decl. (Narwal 106*, Gambhir 93, Chand 84, Nathu 7-87) in Jaipur.
(Stumps) Odisha 274 (Poddar 148*) trail Vidarbha (toss) and (f/o) 15 for 0 trail 467 (U Yadav 128*, Shanware 119, Satish 53) by 178 runs in Nagpur.
(Stumps) Mumbai (toss) 158 for 5 (Lad 63*) trail Andhra 244 (Bhui 103, Kaif 90, Sandhu 5-53) by 86 runs in Vizianagaram.
(Stumps) Railways 196 (Ashish Singh 90, Saurabh 69, Sran 6-61, S Kaul 4-53) and (f/o) 125 for 5 (Khanna 5-51) trail Punjab (toss) 604 for 5 decl. (G Mann 201*, U Kaul 112, Mandeep 109, Khera 102*, Yuvraj 23) by 283 runs in Mohali.
(Stumps) MP 234 for 3 (Shrivastava 99*, Ojha 88*) trail UP (toss) 686 for 7 decl. (Saif 198, Sarfaraz 155, Shaukat 128, Srivastava 75) by 452 runs in Moradabad.
(Stumps) Goa (toss) 349 for 4 (Kamat 81*, Misal 67*, RR Singh 59, Asnodkar 53) lead Hyderabad 325 (Vihari 82, Akshath Reddy 61) by 24 runs in Provorim.
(Stumps) Kerala 485 for 8 (Baby 151, Samson 101, Prem 69, Jagadeesh 69) lead J&K (toss) 330 (Bandeep 82, Raza 73, Rasool 54) by 155 runs in Srinagar.
