Tamil Nadu has onerous task at hand

Captain Abhinav Mukund is at the crease with a composed half century (54, 137b, 4x4) and keeping him company was B Aparajith batting on 15. Debutant left-arm fast bowler Y Prithvi Raj continued his impressive showing taking the wicket of M Kaushik Gandhi caught by wicketkeeper K Srikar Bharat. Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt ended the 40-run association between Mukund and B Indrajith when he had the latter pouched by ‘keeper Bharat with the score on 79. 

Earlier, Andhra’s diminutive batsman B Sumanth had the honour of scoring the first century of the match (109, 280b, 5x4, 1x6) and he had the lower order rallying around him to help the visitor seize a crucial first innings lead of 133 runs.  Sumanth and Shoaib Mohammed Khan (43, 145b, 5x4) frustrated the TN bowlers in the first session. 

Sumanth, who suffered cramps on his fingers on day two, continued batting with resolve and was averse to playing any extravagant shots. Shoaib Mohammed fell seven runs shy of what would have been a deserved half century on debut as he out leg before to Ashwin. The last two wickets folded up for the addition of 26 runs, with centurion Sumanth being the last man out. The 29-year-old Sumanth, who had five centuries to his name going into thi match, would probably acknowledge that this knock against a formidable Tamil Nadu would rank the best of the six. 

The two TN fast bowlers K Vignesh and L Vignesh shared five wickets between them, while MS Washington Sundar picked up the lone wicket of Bhargav Bhatt. With only a day’s play left, the chances of TN going for an outright win are looking bleak. Not the kind of start that TN would have visualised. 

Tamil Nadu (1st innings) 176 

Andhra (1st innings) DB Prasanth c Indrajith b L Vignesh 1, KS Bharat st Jagadeesan b Ashwin 32, Hanuma Vihari c Aparajith b L Vignesh 3, Ricky Bhui c Aparajith b K Vignesh 22, Y Venugopal Rao c Shah b Ashwin 3, B Sumanth c Washington b Ashwin 109, K Ashwin Hebbar b K Vignesh 64, Shoaib Md Khan lbw b Ashwin 43, Bhargav Bhatt c Jagadeesan b Washington 4, B Ayyappa b K Vignesh 5, Y Prithvi Raj (not out) 2. Extras: 21. Total (in 123.4 overs) 309. FoW: 1-8, 2-12, 3-40, 4-57, 5-64, 6-182, 7-193, 8-283, 9-302. Bowling: Ashwin 33.4-12-71-4, K Vignesh 30-8-73-3, L Vignesh 16-4-42-2, Rahil Shah 28-3-73-0, Washington 14-229-1, Vijay 2-0-7-0. 

Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): A Mukund (batting) 54, M Vijay (retired hurt) 13, KM Gandhi c Bharat b Prithvi Raj 7, B Indrajith c Bharat b Bhatt 16, B Aparajith (batting) 15. Extras: 7. Total (for 2 wickets in 54 overs) 112. FoW: 1-39, 2-79. Bowling: Ayyappa 16-7-21-0, Prithvi Raj 14-2-25-1, Bhatt 15-1-40-1, Shoaib Md Khan 9-2-20-0.