Malolan spins TN to win

Chennai: Tamil Nadu are back on track. Inspired by Malolan Rangarajan’s career-best figures of six for 46, Tamil Nadu scripted their first outright victory of the Ranji season, a nine-wicket result over Baroda on Monday. With this six-point outing, TN have moved to fourth spot in Group B and three more rounds to be played before the top three qualify for the knockout stage.

Coming into the final day, the match seemed to be heading in one direction — towards a dull draw, with Baroda resuming their second innings at 73 for one, a lead of two. But the script witnessed a spectacular twist as Baroda’s batting crumbled like a cookie and lost nine wickets for 38 runs to be bundled out for 129.

Had TN chased down the target of 59 without losing the wicket of K.B. Arun Karthick (33), they would have secured a bonus point.

Nevertheless, it was a decisive result for the home team in desperate search of an impetus after two full sessions were wiped out by rain on day two.

It was Malolan who triggered Baroda’s collapse that coincided with the change of ball in the 48th over.

After keeping the overnight batsmen at bay for the first hour, Malolan unleashed the attack by setting up as many as four close-in fielders. It paid off immediately as Aditya Waghmode was forced to nick one to the wicket-keeper and what followed was a flurry of activity in Baroda’s dressing room.

Amid ruins, young Dhiren Mistry, the only Baroda batsman to hit a half-century in the first innings, stood like a rock to score his successive 50+ score. But his marathon resistance (64 off 230 balls) went down the drain.

Including the prized scalp of Yusuf Pathan, left-arm spinner R. Aushik Srinivas took three to go with his first-innings haul of as many wickets.

Aushik stunned Yusuf with a peach of a delivery to have him brilliantly caught by Abhinav Mukund at slips.

Off the 8.2 overs bowled by Aushik on Monday, six of them were maidens and he gave away just six runs in the rest.

As Malolan, who returned with a match haul of nine for 101, summed it up the wicket was tricky and changed as the match progressed. “It wasn’t a rank turner; it wasn’t a beautiful wicket to bat on. Anyone who was committed to the cause would do well, be it a batsman or a bowler,” he said.

Wakaskar (run out) 20, Dhiren Mistry c Arun Karthick b Aushik Srinivas 64, Aditya Waghmode c Dinesh Karthik b Malolan Rangarajan 22, Kedar Devdhar c Rahil Shah b Malolan Rangarajan 1, Abhimanyu Chauhan c Abhinav Mukund b Aushik Srinivas 9, Yusuf Pathan c Abhinav Mukund b Aushik Srinivas 0, Pinal Shah lbw b Malolan Rangarajan 0, Hardik Pandya c Aswin Crist b Malolan Rangarajan 5, Murtuja Vahora c Rahil Shah b Malolan Rangarajan 1, Ketul Patel b Malolan Rangarajan 0, Bhargav Bhatt (not out) 0.

E Ex xt tr ra as s ( (b b 4 4, , l lb b 3 3) ) 7 7. . T To ot ta al l ( (i in n 7 75 5. .2 2 o ov ve er rs s) ) 1 12 29 9. .

F Fo oW W: : 1-38, 2-91, 3-95, 4-116, 5116, 6-119, 7-125, 8-128, 9-129.

B Bo ow wl li in ng g: : Balaji 10-5-15-0, Aswin 5-1 -9-0, Aushik 17.2-923-3, Malolan 29-11-46-6, Rahil 14-3-29-0.

T Ta am mi il l N Na ad du u ( (2 2n nd d i in nn ni in ng gs s) ): : K.B. Arun Karthick lbw b Ketul Patel 33, Abhinav Mukund (not out) 20, B. Indrajith (not out) 5. E Ex xt tr ra as s ( (l lb b 1 1) ) 1 1. . T To ot ta al l ( (f fo or r o on ne e w wi ic ck ke et t i in n 1 14 4. .5 5 o ov ve er rs s) )

T TN N S SQ QU UA AD D F FO OR R R RA AI IL LW WA AY YS S C CL LA AS SH H L. Balaji (c), S. Badrinath, Abhinav Mukund, B. Aparajith, R. Prasanna, Dinesh Karthik, Arun Karthick, B. Indrajith, Vijay Shankar, R. Malolan, R.Aushik Srinivas, Aswin Crist, J.Kaushik, Rahil Shah, M. Mohammed, U. Sushil.

BRIEF SCORES GROUP A Delhi 442 & 231/6 decl. (Vaibhav Rawal 51, Rahul Yadav 50) drew with Odisha 379 & 37/0. Punjab 184 & 469/6 decl. (Jiwanjot 200, Uday Kaul 133, Ravi Thakur 2/84, Sandeep Singh 2/86) drew with Vidarbha 360 & 186/3 (Kolhar 91, Shrivastava 60*) Haryana 247 & 105 lost to Karnataka 256 and 97/7 in 33.5 overs (Stuart Binny 31*, Harshal Patel 5/41). Jharkhand 351 and 278/7 (Bhavin Thakker 39, R.Nemat 32, S. Tiwary 38, I.Jaggi 103*) drew with Mumbai 265 & 115/5 (A. Tare 36, S. Yadav 31*) GROUP B Madhya Pradesh 115 and 314 lost to Rajasthan 282 and 150/3 in 32.4 overs (Robin Bist 63, Ashok Menaria 49) GROUP C Tripura 650/8 decl. drew with Hyderabad 566/8 in 171 overs (D.B. Ravi Teja 175, G.H. Vihari 55, Tushar Saha 5/150) Jammu and Kashmir 85 and 439 in 153.5 overs (Obaid Haroon 94, Bandeep Singh 79; Parvez Rasool 64*, Shrikant Mundhe 5/123, Bharatkumar Solanki 3/47) lost to Maharashtra 401/9 decl. & 126/1 in 26.2 overs (Harshad Khadiwale 74*). Assam 247 & 208 in 79.3 overs (Jamaluddin Syed Mohammed 67, Amit Yadav 7/69) lost to Goa 406/9 decl.
and 50 for no loss in 9.5 overs.