Ajith Ram picks four as Chhattisgarh puts mammoth 500 on board

CHENNAI: Chhattisgarh batters continued to dominate TN bowling unit and posted a mammoth first innings total of 500 runs on second day of the third round of the Elite Group D match of Ranji Trophy in Coimbatore on Sunday.

Resuming the day at 293/2, the pair of Anuj Tiwary and Sanjeet Desai added 123 runs to their partnership before senior all-rounder Vijay Shankar got the much-needed breakthrough, scalping Anuj’s wicket by rattling his stumps.

Then it was not too long until they got the next wicket as left-arm spinner Ajith Ram dismissed the in-form batter Amandeep Khare (4), who slammed a double ton in the previous match.

But post lunch, the wicket did not offer much for the TN players and batters Eknath Kekar and Ajay Mandal made the most of it by building on their partnership and helping the away ream cross the 400-run mark. Shortly before tea, Eknath (52) attempted a reverse-sweep off Pradosh Ranjan Paul’s delivery, but it went straight to Shahrukh Khan. Ajith Ram was the star for Tamil Nadu on the second day and took four wickets overall.

After long hard toil, M Siddharth scalped three wickets in the evening session and bowled out Chhattisgarh for 500 runs. In return, Tamil Nadu did not have a good start with the bat as they lost the wicket of S Lokeshwar (7) in just the fifth over of its innings to end the day at 23/1.

With most of its senior players missing out, it’d be an interesting battle when TN batters come out to bat on Monday

Brief Scores: Chhattisgarh (1st innings) 500 in 169.1 overs (Aayush Pandey 124, Rishabh Tiwari 46, Anuj Tiwary 84, Sanjeet Desai 82, Eknath Kerkar 52, Ajay Mandal 64, Manimaran Siddharth 3/142, Ajith Ram 4/132) vs Tamil Nadu 23/1; end of day two.