Rain jolts TN’s hope of outright win

Chennai: The tailor-made turning wicket had enough demons to produce a result, but the weather gods are threatening to change the plot of the Ranji Trophy Group ‘B’ encounter between Tamil Nadu and Baroda.

The home team had shut out Baroda’s first essay for a meagre 162 to raise hopes for their first outright victory of the season, but bad light followed by incessant rain meant just twoand-a-half hours of play — morning session — was possible on the second day.

Tamil Nadu were 101 for three in 42 overs — still need 62 runs to take three points for the first innings lead — when the umpires called off play at 4.30pm after three inspections.

The forecast for Sunday is not good news for the hosts who are keen to take maximum points out of this match.

Though it remains to be seen whether the pitch would continue to wear and tear when the covers make way for action on the morrow, B. Indrajith and Dinesh Karthik — both are unbeaten on 23 — have a big task on their hands in tackling Baroda spinners Yusuf Pathan and Bhargav Bhatt who shared three wickets on day two.

Left-arm spinner Bhatt trapped opener K.B. Arun Karthick for 23, but it was skipper Yusuf who kept TN batsmen at bay by bowling immaculate line assisted by pace.

After testing the batsmen on his introductory spell, Yusuf returned to account for Abhinav Mukund (29) and B. Aparajith (2) in quick succession to leave TN in trouble at 67 for three. The one that castled Abhinav was a gem of a delivery that pitched on middle before hitting the off-stump.

The batsman could only stand and look flabbergasted.

Aparajith, who scored at least a half-century in the previous four first-innings, suffered a rare failure as he was out lbw.

Dinesh showed positive intent against Yusuf. He pulled one over square-leg fence for a six and also punished left-arm spinner Ketul Patel to midwicket boundary as TN went past 100.

After lunch, Yusuf wanted his seamers to bowl under a gloomy sky but umpires had no other choice than to suspend the play for bad light. Soon, the clouds opened up.