With India still sweating over the availability of captain Shubman Gill for the second Test, there is plenty of noise around whether anyone from domestic circuit will earn a call-up. While those expectations might be misplaced with India sounding out only the all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, Rinku Singh’s name has hardly been in discussions. On Tuesday, the batsman who averages 57.39 in first-class cricket, sent out another reminder with national selector Pragyan Ojha watching from the gallery here as his unbeaten 98 kept Uttar Pradesh in the game against Tamil Nadu. Responding to TN’s total of 455, UP were 339/6 when stumps was taken early because of bad light as this fixture is heading down towards who gains the first-innings lead.
The pitch which has remained on snooze mode refused to wake up for the third successive day. Even as dark clouds hovered around, seamers struggled to extract much. But it wasn’t easy to score freely as well, unless the batsmen were prepared for the grind. After the overnight pair of Abhishek Goswami and Aryan Juyal added 75 runs, left-arm spinner P Vidyuth made three telling blows. He removed both the set pair in his successive overs – Goswami trapped in front to one that turned to beat the outside edge and breaching the defence of Juyal. In the middle of a pulsating spell, he accounted for Karan Sharma as well as he dived low to take a sharp catch off his own bowling to leave UP at 182/4. When seamer Saravana Kumar had Aaradhya Yadav nick one to wicketkeeper, UP had lost five for 191.
From there on it was all about Rinku coming to the forefront with Shivam Mavi playing a vital innings in the background. The left-hander, a regular in India’s T20 scheme of things, as a finisher has stood out with his temperament. He has shown he has the game to adapt to the situations and conditions which have been possible because unlike his peers he has 51 first-class fixtures to his name. While the conversion rate may not paint a rosy picture with 22 fifties to go with 8 centuries, what has to be factored is he bats at No 5. Up against a TN attack without much, he was barely troubled. With the seamers bowling a tight line, he negated them with ease, prepared to grind them down. Against left-arm spinners R Sai Kishore and Vidyuth, he used his feet to good effect, lofting them for three sixes. To restrict a batsman with nimble foot is never easy for any spinner and once he got the hold of the situation, Rinku dictated the proceedings. With TN hardly spraying anything on the leg, all of his 9 boundaries came on the off-side with the drives being the standout.
That captain Sai Kishore didn’t bring on Vidyuth – the pick of the bowlers for the entire third session didn’t help TN’s cause either. Taken off the attack a couple of overs after he dismissed the UP captain, Vidyuth stood and watched as Sai Kishore and Pradosh Ranjan Paul tested Rinku unsuccessfully. With all the focus on Rinku, Mavi played an aggressive innings, making 54 off 62 in an innings laden with seven boundaries and a six before being dismissed off Saravana Kumar to the second new ball. TN couldn’t do much of that opening as Shivam Sharma stood like a rock even as Rinku remained in his flow. Although he would have wished to get to the three-figure mark before the close of play, he barely got strike in the end before bad light ensured he would have to spend the night on 98.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 455 vs Uttar Pradesh 339/6 (Rinku Singh 98 n.o, Abhishek Goswami 79, Shivam Mavi 54; P Vidyuth 3/48).
