Captain Subramaniam Badrinath struck form to score an elegant 143 and help Tamil Nadu post  421 in the first innings. Tamil Nadu's bowlers then grabbed crucial wickets to leave Karnataka struggling at 144 for 6 at close on the second day of their four-day Elite-A Ranji Trophy match in Chennai on Saturday.

After a dismal performance in the earlier two matches, against Maharashtra and Mumbai, and with Tamil Nadu having just a point in their kitty, Badrinath's sound batting came at the right time.

Resuming at his overnight 93, Badrinath and Ramkumar, who scored 65 (9 fours and a six), added 83 off 126 balls for the seventh wicket. Overnight not out, Gopinath (3) failed to add to his score.

This was Badrinath's ninth century in the Ranji Trophy; he was the ninth man out when Tamil Nadu were 407.

He stayed at the crease for 421 minutes for his 143 off 304 balls, which contained 14 fours and 2 sixes.

For Karnataka, Vinaykumar (3/74), Aiyappa (3/73), Sunil Joshi (3/103) shared the wickets.

In reply, Karnataka lost opener K B Pavan cheaply with eight runs on the board and Robin Uthappa too failed miserably, scoring 15.

Facing Yeo Mahesh, Uthappa played forward defensively and ended up edging the ball to wicketkeeper Gopinath.

With off-spinner Ramkumar scalping both C Raghu (6) and Sudhindra Shinde (45-9 fours), the visitors were in trouble.

Shinde did create a stir as he steered the bowlers to point fence seven times for his first runs before taking a single.

Captain Yere Goud (34) and Tilak Naidu (36) also made their exit.

At close B Akhil was batting on one.

Scorecard

Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
S Anirudha lbw RVinaykumar 0
M Vijay c Tilak Naidu b NC Aiyappa 32
A Mukund Run out (Vinay Kumar) 108
S Badrinath c Shinde b Sunil Joshi 143
K Srivasudeva Das c Shinde b Sunil Joshi 12
R Srinivasan c Vinay Kumar b NC Aiyappa 27
K Gopinath c Yere Goud b NC Aiyappa 3
R Ramkumar c B Akhil b R Vinaykumar 65
Yeo Mahesh lbw Sunil Joshi 0
C Suresh not out 7
P Amarnath c KB Pavan b R.Vinaykumar 8
Extras: (B-7, Lb-5, Nb-2, W-2) 16
Total: (in 132.2 overs) 421

Fall of wkts: 1-0, 2-67, 3-206, 4-223, 5-282, 6-294, 7-377, 8-390, 9-407, 10-421.

Bowling: R Vinaykumar 30.2-12-74-3, NC Aiyappa 23-1-73-3, B Akhil 15-3-52-0, S Sunil Joshi 37-10-103-3, KP Appanna 16-0-73-0, C Raghu 11-1-34-0

Karnataka (1st innings):
R Uthappa c Gopinath b Yeo Mahesh 15
K Pavan b P Amarnath 3
S Shinde b Ramkumar 45
C Raghu lbw Ramkumar 6
Y Goud c Gopinath b P Amarnath 34
T Naidu c Anirudha b Ramkumar 36
B Akhil not out 1
Extras: (Nb-3, W-1) 4
Total: (for 6 wkts in 44.1) 144

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-30, 3-58, 4-78, 5-140, 6-144

Bowling: Yo Mahesh 13-3-40-1, P Amarnath 10.1-3-46-2, A Mukund 1-0-6-0, Ramkumar 15-5-32-3, C Suresh 5-1-20-0.