Tamil Nadu’s batting 45 minutes before the tea break was gloomier than the dark clouds that were hovering around. It eventually brought an early end to their misery against Jharkhand on the second day of their Ranji Trophy clash in Coimbatore. Having let Jharkhand off the hook – they were 157/6 at one stage but went on to score 419 – the day went from bad to worse. In a space of 14 deliveries, on a pitch that offered a bit of seam movement with the new ball and overhead conditions contributing to the challenge, the Tamil Nadu top-order went down like ninepins, much to the horror of the dressing room as they ended the day at 18/5. Jharkhand can register a big win, weather permitting.
“I don’t think they bowled extraordinarily, but it was just our fault the way we got out on a wicket that is really good to the batters. There was slight seam movement and I felt we could have definitely negotiated them a lot better. But unfortunately, we are put in a very precarious situation right now,” skipper N Jagadeesan said.
Having assembled in Coimbatore on September 24, they had two weeks of intense preparations for days like this. With a young batting line-up in place and B Sai Sudharsan and Jagadeesan expected to be away on national commitments, how the young crop will front up to the challenge was the big question. Despite fielding two teams in the Buchi Babu tournament and having their players feature in six rounds of the First Division, it was deemed necessary to hold a pre-season camp for a reason. It is believed by many that the First Division, TN’s fabled nursery, is no longer of much help to their players in their evolution. It is why the camp became a key part of their preparation, where they had centre-wicket training sessions, including simulations, on green tops. Even when they had to hand over the pitch here to the BCCI for the opening fixture, they travelled to Tiruppur to replicate the training. So preparation-wise, they had ticked all boxes.
And when a real-life challenge presented itself, all it needed was their batting unit to replicate the drills in the middle. In the same square they had had countless open-net sessions, the batters had to start cautiously, assess the conditions and then go in pursuit of Jharkhand’s total. But off the first ball of the innings, the left-handed B Sachin was bowled by seamer Sahil Raj with a delivery that kept low after landing short of a good length. Coming in at No 8, Sahil’s 183-ball 77 and his 214-run stand for the seventh wicket with Ishan Kishan – who went on to convert his overnight score of 125 to 173 – had already made a strong impact on the game. With the ball, he didn’t need to do anything extraordinary. Just kept the lines straight and got the ball to seam away. That Ishan started to stand up close to the stumps by his third over reinforced that his pace wasn’t an issue.
Jharkhand skipper Ishan Kishan in action against Tamil Nadu during Ranji Trophy. (Photo: Special Arrangement)
With Sahil being economical, debutant seamer Jatin Pandey too hit the right lines and length straightaway. For seven overs, skipper N Jagadeesan and Pradosh Ranjan Paul resisted hara-kiri. However, what was evident was they seemed more intent in playing those deliveries in the corridor, when they should have left alone like Ishan had done for a major part of his innings, shunning his attacking instincts and playing the situation. The slide began when Jagadeesan went for an expansive drive off a rare full-delivery, only to be caught at gully to become Pandey’s maiden first-class wicket. In the same over, Pradosh would perish, going for another rash square-cut to a wide delivery that sailed into the hands of Sahil at point, who caught it above his head.
That dismissal brought the experienced Baba Indrajith to the crease at No 5. A calming figure in this line-up of stroke-makers, he has been handed a demotion with C Andre Siddarth taking the No 4. It mattered little here, though. Sahil, who had been taking the ball away all along, sent an in-dipper and it was enough to breach the defence of Indrajith first ball. When Pandey trapped Siddarth in the next over – who stood far too upright on a pitch where there wasn’t enough bounce instead of standing low — Jharkhand were all over Tamil Nadu.
“It’s not like a white ball game where we actually need to plan so much and think about scoring runs and stuff. In a three-day game, I think it’s about being smart when we bat because the wicket was a bit slow and the bowlers were also bowling really slow. And I just felt that we were looking for runs a bit more. So if we had just taken our time to settle in and get used to the pace, things could have been different,” Jagadeesan reflected on a forgettable day.
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Brief scores: Jharkhand 419 (Ishan Kishan 173, Sahil Raj 77; Gurjapneet Singh 4/77) vs Tamil Nadu 18/5 (Jatin Pandey 3/10).
