TN in strong position

Former champions Tamil Nadu are in the driver's seat, having earned a first innings lead of 176 runs after dismissing Assam for a paltry 134 on the second day of the 'Elite' Group 'B' Ranji Trophy league match in Chennai on Wednesday.

At close, Tamil Nadu were 99 for two in their second innings.

Resuming at the overnight score of 291 for nine, Tamil Nadu's innings ended at 310 but the visitors were soon in trouble with the hosts bowlers ruling the roost.

Medium pacer M R Srinivasan signalled the worst to come when he dismissed Parag Das in the very first ball of Assam's innings. The batsman holed out to a superb one-handed catch at second slip by Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan.

However, the second-wicket pair of Subarajit Saikia (18) and Kiran Pawar (14) resisted the attack for a while, adding 30 useful runs before Saikia snicked Ganapathy to wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik.

Two more wickets fell for an addition of just nine runs – that of Kiran Pawar and Z Sulfi (one) -- to leave Assam reeling at 40 for 4.

Then, former Tamil Nadu star, Vasanth Saravanan made good use of his home turf, driving the bowlers to the fence with elan and scored 30 runs including six fours. Once he made his exit, being caught at cover by Suresh of Ganapathy, spinner Ramkumar scalped two batsmen and Assam were in deep trouble with just 77 for 6.

After Gautam Dutta, who was shaping well also walked back after making a valuable 30 (1 six and 3 fours), the visitors were folded up in 49.1 overs for a meagre 134.

With more than two days to spare, Tamil Nadu decided to bat again instead of asking the visitors to follow on. The hosts lost opener D Karthik without any score on the board and S Sriram was bowled around his legs for 22.

Scoreboard:

Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
S Suresh lbw b Dutta                  14
D Karthik b Raghuram                  71
S Sriram c Zufri b Satish             19
S Badrinath c Saikia b Satish          1
S Sharath c and b Das                 14
S Viswanathan c Satish b Konwar       13
V Sivaramakrishnan c Pawar b Raghuram 53
Ramkumar c Powar b Satish             73
C Ganapathy b Yadav                   16
M R Srinivas not out                   6
D Kumaran c and b Yadav               12

Extras: (B-9, Lb-6, W-1, NB-2)        18

Total (all out in 93.2 overs)        310

Fall of wickets: 1/34, 2/81, 3/85, 4/113, 5/140, 6/144, 7/236, 8/291, 9/291.

Bowling: Dutta 13-1-56-1, Yadav 22.2-3-68-2, Parag Das 10-2-30-1, Konwar 19-7-42-1, Satish 9-1-33-3, Raghuram 12-1-39-2, Pawar 8-2-27-0.

Assam (1st innings):
P Das c Sivaramakrishnan b Srinivas      0
S Saikia c Karthik b Ganapathy          18
K Pawar b Kumaran                       14
V Saravanan c Suresh b Ganapathy        30
Z Zulfi lbw b Suresh                     1
R Satish b Ramkumar                     16
Sukwinder Singh c and b Ramkumar         0
G Dutta c Viswananthan b Kumaran        30
O Konwar c Viswanathan b Ramkumar        9
R Raghuram c Sivarakrishnan b Ramkumar   6
R K Yadav not out                        0

Extras (B-1, W-2, NB-7)                 10

Total (all out, 49.1 overs)            134

Fall of wickets: 1/0, 2/31, 3/33, 4/40, 5/77, 6/77, 7/98, 8/123, 9/133.

Bowling: Srinivas 6-4-6-1, Kumaran 15-5-32-2, Ganapathy 11-1-57-2, Suresh 8-4-14-1, Ramkumar 9.1-4-24-4.