Jagadeesan, Pradosh shine the brightest

CHENNAI: Opener Narayan Jagadeesan hit a fluent century while newly appointed vice-captain Pradosh Ranjan Paul also let his bat do the talking as Tamil Nadu reached 386 for four at stumps on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match against Assam at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here on Tuesday.

After R Sai Kishore won the toss and elected to bat first, Tamil Nadu enjoyed a field day, despite suffering an early jolt with the dismissal of B Sai Sudharsan. Jagadeesan (125 off 152 balls, 14 fours) brought up his second hundred of the Ranji season while No.5 batter Pradosh remained unbeaten on 99 (127 balls, 11 fours) at close of play, closing in on his third red-ball ton of the ongoing campaign.

Besides Jagadeesan and Pradosh, former captains Baba Indrajith (77 off 113 balls, 8 fours) and Vijay Shankar (53 batting off 91 balls, 5 fours) made the Assam bowlers to toil hard on a surface that primarily assisted the willow wielders.

The home team did not have it easy at the start, though, as Sai Sudharsan (2) was sent back to the pavilion in the fourth over by left-arm pacer Sunil Lachit (1/50). Just when it looked like Jagadeesan and Baba Aparajith had set the base, the latter was removed for 23 by pacer Mukhtar Hussain (1/71) to leave Tamil Nadu at 68 for two.

Indrajith replaced his brother Aparajith in the middle and joined forces with Jagadeesan to turn the day in Tamil Nadu’s favour. They accumulated 157 runs off 212 deliveries for the third-wicket alliance, where both batters contributed 77 runs each.

Jagadeesan raised his century with a single down the leg side but fell prey to left-arm spinner Siddharth Sarmah (2/80), who had earlier accounted for Indrajith. After the visitor tried to claw its way back into the contest – the Tamil Nadu scorecard read 236 for four – the in-form Pradosh and Vijay Shankar owned the final session of the day.

The left-right combination put on 150 runs off 205 balls for the unbroken fifth wicket as Tamil Nadu inched closer to the 400-run mark.

BRIEF SCORES: Tamil Nadu 386/4 in 90 overs (Narayan Jagadeesan 125, Pradosh Ranjan Paul 99*, Baba Indrajith 77, Vijay Shankar 53*, Siddharth Sarmah 2/80) vs Assam