Dimapur, Oct 27 (PTI) Underdogs Nagaland showed they are made of sterner stuff as their batters fought tooth and nail all day to score 365/5 and frustrate Tamil Nadu who would be fancying their chances of enforcing a follow-on after a mammoth 512-run first-innings total in a Ranji Trophy Group A match here on Monday.
After promising TN left-arm pacer Gurjapneet Singh had left Nagaland reeling at 150/4 on Sunday by taking all the wickets, including a hat-trick that had reduced the northeastern side to 3/9 early on, opener Dega Nischal and middle-order batter Imliwati Lemtur slammed fine centuries on Monday to frustrate the rival bowlers.
On a high-scoring wicket, overnight batter Nischal who was 80 not out, came back refreshed to add another 81 runs to be unbeaten on 161 (350 balls, 4×24), while veteran Nagaland batter Lemtur dug deep to score 115 not out (203 balls, 4×17, 6×3) as the side reduced the lead to 147 runs going into the final day.
Nischal and Lemtur’s unbeaten 205-run sixth-wicket partnership would now be weighing on Tamil Nadu skipper Sai Kishore’s mind, given that Nagaland now look quite capable of overhauling the rival’s mammoth first-innings total if they bat sensibly on the last day of the rubber.
Gurjapneet, who played two unofficial ODIs for India A against the touring Australia A side in Kanpur last month, could not get the vital breakthrough while the rest of the Tamil Nadu bowlers, barring left-arm spinner DT Chandrasekar who got the only success on the day, toiled all day without making inroads.
Yugandhar Singh, the only batter to fall on the day, added just nine runs to his overnight score of 58 before being dismissed by Chandrasekar on 67. The 20-year-old’s, 129-run fifth-wicket stand with Nischal on Sunday had provided stability to the Nagaland side after Gurjapneet’s hat-trick.
Nischal and all-rounder Lemtur batted patiently on Monday, playing the ball on merit without trying any audacious shot.
The 31-year-old left-arm spinner Lemtur was a revelation with the bat as he notched up his maiden century in his 43rd first-class match. Lemtur’s previous best was 61, with his batting average just over 13-per-game.
But on Monday, he gave Tamil Nadu a mighty scare, and their skipper Sai Kishore would he hoping to break the partnership as quickly as possible before Nagaland entertain the thought of taking the first-innings lead in the game.
Brief scores: In Dimapur: Tamil Nadu 1st innings 512/3 decl in 115 overs vs Nagaland 365 for 5 in 127 overs (Dega Nischal 161 not out, Yugandhar Singh 67, Imliwati Lemtur 1115 not out; Gurjapneet Singh 4/34).
In Vizianagaram: Baroda 1st innings 363 in 109 overs (Vishnu Solanki 132; Atit Sheth 86, Mahesh Pithiya 54; Kavuri Saiteja 4/71, Tripurana Vijay 3/63) vs Andhra 43 for 2 in 16 overs (Bhargav Bhatt 2/9).
In Nagpur: Jharkhand 1st innings 332 in 125.3 overs vs Vidarbha 239 for 2 in 88 overs (Aman Mokhade 145 not out, Dhruv Shorey 48).
In Kanpur: Odisha 1st innings: 243 all out in 77.1 overs vs Uttar Pradesh 380 for 6 in 128 overs (Madhav Kaushik 67, Karan Sharma 121, Aaradhya Yadav 101 retd hurt, Sambit Baral 3/52). PTI AM AM AH AH
Category: Breaking News
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