In-form Dhruv Shorey blew away an opportunity to score his third successive hundred in as many innings as Tamil Nadu restricted hosts Delhi to 212 for six on opening day of a Group B Ranji Trophy game here on Tuesday.
Shorey (66, 168 balls) and left-handed Jonty Sidhu (57, 107 balls) added 105 runs for the third wicket but the home team could hardly dominate on a Feroz Shah Kotla track which became good for batting after the first hour and half.
But the manner in which Sidhu and Vaibhav Rawal (11) were out defending slow bouncers from pacer Sandeep Warrier (3/59 in 22 overs) was embarrassing to say the least.
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Warrier and fellow seamer L Vignesh (3/42 in 19 overs) were disciplined as they bowled a probing line and hit good lengths time and again.
It was a good toss that Tamil Nadu skipper Baba Indrajith won as he rightly put Delhi into bat in cold and overcast conditions.
In fact, Vignesh, in the morning session, bowled wearing an off white woolen headgear.
Opener Anuj Rawat got one from Vignesh that was pitched up and the loose shot was snapped up by Vijay Shankar at gully.
In the morning, the ball was still doing a bit and captain Yash Dhull (0) tried an ambitious square cut when Vignesh’s delivery pitched back of length and reared up. However, Dhull was unlucky as there was no edge but he was ruled out due to a poor decision by the umpire.
Shorey, buoyed by his 252 and 150 not out against Assam, was very watchful and had the stodgy Sidhu for company.
They punished the loose deliveries but to be fair to Tamil Nadu pacers, they maintained discipline for sustained periods.
Warrier was particularly good with the old ball as he dismissed Sidhu with a well directed bouncer which the southpaw fended with his bat over his head and N Jagadeesan took a simple catch.
But Rawal wouldn’t like to watch his dismissal. It was a slow bouncer bowled at 116 kmph by Warrier and he got into a tangle trying to save his face without gauging the pace of the delivery and simplest of return catches was gleefully accepted by Warrier.
“Last season, we didn’t try the short ball tactic that much but this year, we had decided that we need to use it,” Warrier told mediapersons after the match.
If there was one person, who would curse himself, it would be Shorey, who had done all the hardwork for the previous 167 deliveries before Vignesh mixed it up cleverly.
He bowled a few inswingers and followed it up with a nice outgoing delivery on drivable length. Playing away from his body due to lapse of concentration, the thickish edge resulted in a diving Baba Aparajith plucking one inches off the ground.
Lalit Yadav (33 batting), who hit the only six of the day off seamer Vijay Shankar and Himmat Singh (25) added 43 runs for the sixth wicket.
Tamil Nadu mainly used pacers as India international Washington Sundar (9 overs) and lead spinner R Sai Kishore (2 overs) only bowled 11 out of the 76 overs.
The credit for the dismissal of Himmat should go to Warrier as he beautifully set-up the batter with a couple of outswingers before a sharp in-cutter breached through his defences.
“I wanted to bowl an incoming delivery but I didn’t expect such huge movement,” he said.
Brief Scores: In Delhi: Delhi 1st Innings 212/6 in 76 overs (Dhruv Shorey 66, Jonty Sidhu 57, Sandeep Warrier 3/59; L Vignesh 3/42) vs Tamil Nadu.
In Mumbai: Saurashtra 1st Innings 289 in 79.1 overs (Arpit Vasavada 75, Sheldon Jackson 47; Shams Mulani 4/109) vs Mumbai 1st Innings 36/2 in 8 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 18 batting, Ajinkya Rahane 12 batting).
In Hyderabad: Assam 1st Innings 205 in 56.4 overs (Swarupam Purkayastha 83; Ravi Teja 4/53, Kartikeya Kak 3/43) vs Hyderabad 1st Innings 78/3 in 27 overs (Rohit Rayudu 22 batting, Mukhtar Hussain 2/25).
In Vizianagaram: Maharashtra 1st Innings 200 in 57.3 overs (Saurabh Nawale 70, Nitish Kumar Reddy 5/53) vs Andhra 58/2 in 23 overs (Hanuma Vihari 15 batting).
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