Rajasthan make early inroads to take control
TN in trouble after visitors post 621
For a whopping 1,016 minutes, Tamil Nadu’s batsmen were given a lesson in the art of innings-building by Rajasthan. 
Unfortunately from the hosts’ perspective, that lesson was completely lost on their top order.
Through a succession of poor shot-selection, Tamil Nadu dug a deep hole for themselves on the middle day of the Ranji Trophy final at the MA Chidambaram stadium. By the time Dinesh Kaarthick and K Shri Vasudeva Das rallied them with an unseparated stand of 42, far too much self-inflicted damage had been done, leaving Rajasthan primed to become only the fifth team to successfully defend its Ranji crown.
Tamil Nadu finished Saturday’s play at a woefully inadequate 66 for three in their quest to overhaul the defending champions’ gargantuan 621, built around a monumental 15-hour essay from Vineet Saxena that eventually ended at 257 (907m, 662b, 26x4, 2x6). It wasn’t quite the most exhilarating knock, but during his dour occupation of the crease, Saxena had shown the way to bat on the slow-paced, stroke production-discouraging surface.
For Tamil Nadu to reach anywhere near the opposition total called for stomach for battle, the willingness to cut out the frills and play percentage cricket, the need for oodles of patience, the ability to avoid playing on the rise and focus on the ‘V’, and to graft and graft and graft away without an eye on the score board.
In the event, their three most accomplished batsmen all carelessly threw their hands away, each culpable of playing across the line. In direct contrast to the Tamil Nadu new-ball operators who bowled outside the line of the stumps, Pankaj Singh and Rituraj Singh bowled a perfect stump-to-stump line and found instant reward as Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay and S Badrinath obliged by eschewing playing down the ground.
Mukund and Badrinath were both trapped leg before trying to work the ball to leg, even if the former might consider himself slightly unlucky to be at the receiving end of an iffy decision from Peter Hartley with the ball seemingly headed down leg. Vijay was all too eager to emulate his two India colleagues, whipping Rituraj straight to mid-wicket, the flick stroke always fraught with danger what with the ball stopping on pitching on the third-day deck.
Both Pankaj and Rituraj bowled exceptionally well in that they always made the batsmen play, and obtained just a hint of swing. It wasn’t until Vasudeva joined Kaarthick that the rot was stemmed somewhat, but 555 behind, Tamil Nadu need a miracle or three to even threaten the Rajasthan total.
The visitors’ approach when they began on 404 for two was hugely different from their total passivity of the first two days. Armed with the knowledge that the fate of the match would be decided on run rate if the first innings of both teams weren’t completed in five days, Rajasthan showed a greater sense of urgency after seeing off the third new ball, mandatorily commissioned at the start of the day.
Saxena was fortunate not to be dismissed for 216, Vasudeva putting down a sharp overhead chance at gully of the persevering J Kaushik, but apart from that, he hardly put a foot wrong even if it was Robin Bist, the highest run-getter this Ranji season, who did the bulk of the scoring. Tamil Nadu quickly abandoned their token effort to break through, Lakshmipathi Balaji forced on the defensive as a third successive century stand (123, 211m, 293b) emanated.
Offie Sunny Gupta struck after nearly two hours to evict Bist, and Saxena’s showpiece knock finally ended after a 907-minute stint when Aushik Srinivas knocked his off-stump out. The termination of second longest first-class innings in India – behind Rajiv Nayyar’s 1015-minute vigil in 1998-99 – triggered a mini collapse, but the tail threw its bats around to push the total beyond 600 and, it would appear, Tamil Nadu’s reach.
Score Board
RAJASTHAN (I Innings, O/n: 404/2): Aakash Chopra lbw Aushik 94 (440m, 307b, 9x4), Vineet Saxena b Aushik 257 (907m, 662b, 26x4, 2x6), Hrishikesh Kanitkar c Kaarthick b Gupta 67 (208m, 146b, 6x4), Robin Bist c Vasudeva b Gupta 57 (211m, 156b, 9x4), Rashmi Ranjan Parida c Balaji b Kaushik 40 (143m, 99b, 4x4), Puneet Yadav b Aushik 7 (7m, 7b, 1x4), Dishant Yagnik c Yomahesh b Gupta 0 (5m, 7b), Pankaj Singh c Prasanna b Aushik 22 (21m, 19b, 2x4, 2x6), Rituraj Singh b Kaushik 45 (69m, 54b, 6x4, 1x6), Gajendra Singh lbw Kaushik 4 (10m, 7b), Sumit Mathur (not out) 1 (2m, 1b). Extras (B-13, LB-8, W-3, NB-3) 27. Total (all out, 245 overs) 621.
Fall of wickets: 1-236 (Chopra), 2-362 (Kanitkar), 3-485 (Bist), 4-509 (Saxena), 5-517 (Yadav), 6-518 (Yagnik), 7-541 (Pankaj), 8-614 (Parida), 9-620 (Rituraj).
Bowling: Lakshmipathi Balaji 29-10-73-0 (nb-3), J Kaushik 47-14-91-3, V Yomahesh 32-7-88-0 (w-3), R Aushik Srinivas 85-27-192-4, Sunny Gupta 46-8-127-3, Abhinav Mukund 2-0-6-0, K Shri Vasudeva Das 1-0-5-0, Murali Vijay 3-0-18-0.
TAMIL NADU (I Innings): Abhinav Mukund lbw Rituraj 0 (9m, 9b), Murali Vijay c Yadav b Rituraj 15 (45m, 26b, 2x4), S Badrinath lbw Pankaj 6 (21m, 17b, 1x4), Dinesh Kaarthick (batting) 13 (82m, 47b, 2x4), K Shri Vasudeva Das (batting) 25 (68m, 51b, 5x4). Extras (LB-6, W-1) 7. Total (for 3 wkts, 25 overs) 66.
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Mukund), 2-12 (Badrinath), 3-24 (Vijay).
Bowling: Pankaj Singh 8-4-16-1, Rituraj Singh 8-1-27-2, Sumit Mathur 6-3-8-0 (w-1), Gajendra Singh 3-1-9-0.
