Tamil Nadu 152 (Vijay Shankar 34, Aravind 3-16, Gopal 2-1, Vinay 2-52) and 87 (Karthik 41*) beat Karnataka 88 (Pandey 28, Crist 6-31, Natarajan 3-18) and 150 (Rahul 77, Vignesh 4-53, Natarajan 3-40)
Scorecard
File photo – T Natarajan (in pic) took three wickets to leave Tamil Nadu with 87 to win, which they chased down with seven wickets in hand © T Natarajan
On a manic day in which 20 wickets fell and three innings unfolded, Tamil Nadu toppled a full-strength Karnataka side inside two days on a green Visakhapatnam track to march into the semi-final of the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy.
The day began with Dinesh Karthik, playing his 100th Ranji match, nicking behind in the second over of the day, and ended with him launching a straight six to secure Tamil Nadu’s first outright victory over Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy since 2003-04. Karnataka’s current coach J Arunkumar was the captain, and L Balaji, the Tamil Nadu bowling coach, was only playing his 15th Ranji match then.
KL Rahul made a fluent 77, Manish Pandey bagged a duck, and Karun Nair, suffering from lower abdominal pain, literally hobbled his way to 12 at No.8 as Karnataka, who conceded a lead of 64, were bowled out for 150 in the second dig. That was made possible largely due to the efforts of seamer K Vignesh, whose marathon spell of 12-1-43-4 cracked the game open.
He ran in hard and hit the deck harder, and bounced out Karnataka’s middle order. T Natarajan then took care of the tail to dismiss Karnataka in just 38.1 overs. This had come after Tamil Nadu, resuming on 111 for 4, were bowled out for 152 an hour before lunch. Chasing 87, Tamil Nadu lost three wickets inside ten overs, but Karthik made a punchy 41 not out off 30 balls to seal the deal.
At the start of the day, though, it had seemed like anybody’s game. Karnataka’s captain Vinay Kumar nudged his team ahead when he had Karthik, who failed to add to his overnight tally, for 31. B Aparajith then exited in the next over for a three-ball duck. That meant, Abhinav Mukund, who had come into bat at No.6 on the first day because of fever, was left with the tail.
Vinay teased Aswin Crist with a brace of outswingers before pinning the batsman on the pad with an inswinger. But the sharp angle from over the wicket meant the ball would have slid down leg. Abhinav contributed 17 off 48 balls before he was the eighth Tamil Nadu batsman to be dismissed. They were ultimately all-out for in 53.3 overs.
Spin had been introduced for the first time in the match in the form of Shreyas Gopal after 88 overs. Tamil Nadu did not even need the services of their left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas across both innings.
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Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo