Tamil Nadu play themselves into a position of strength

Tamil Nadu have played themselves into a position of strength at the end of day two of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group Final against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium. At stumps they were 223 for 4 in reply to Mumbai's 259.

Mumbai, who elected to bat on the opening day, made a confident start with Wasim Jaffer and Nishit Shetty putting on 67 runs for the second wicket. But once Jaffer fell after a well-constructed 83 off 154 balls (14 fours), the Mumbai innings began to flounder. Eight wickets fell for the addition of just 118 runs as Mumbai were dismissed for 260 just one over into the second morning.

Somasetty Suresh, Tamil Nadu's captain, was the most successful bowler - his medium-pace bowling yielded him three wickets. Lakshmipathy Balaji, MR Shrinivas and J Gokulakrishnan with two wickets each provided able support.

When Tamil Nadu replied, they lost Suresh early. But Sadagoppan Ramesh and Sridharan Sriram - two left-handers who have played at the highest level for India - put their team back on track with a 69-run second-wicket stand, before Sriram (26) was snared by Ajit Agarkar. Ramesh, who had been dropped early in his innings, then forged another useful partnership with S Badrinath for the third wicket. The two men added 49 runs before Badrinath (42 off 116) was dismissed when he top-edged Sairaj Bahatule, the legspinner, into the waiting hands of Vinayak Mane at silly point.

Hemang Badani, the new man in, seemed to be invigorated from the moment he faced his first ball at his favourite ground. Playing with great assurance, Badani ensured that the flagging innings received a new lease of life. In Badani's company, Ramesh too found his timing as the runs began to come at a fair clip. The partnership was eventually broken when Ramesh was dismissed after he had made a dour 85 off 202 balls (10 fours).

Badani, who was unbeaten at 45 at close of play, and the experienced Sridharan Sharath (10*) ensured that the visitors ended the day without any further setbacks.