GUWAHATI, Nov 1 � Assam had to struggle to reach 184 in their first innings against Tamil Nadu in the Elite Group Ranji Trophy match at Chennai today.
At close, the hosts were 21 for no loss after 13 overs with A Mukund and S Anirudha at the crease. Former Team India pacer Lakshmipati Balaji rocked the Assam innings with a four-wicket haul giving away 53 runs.
Batting first, the visitors were in trouble since the initial stage as last year�s prolific run-getter, opener Dhiraj Jadhav, was out cheaply for four. After that Assam hardly recovered as wickets fell at regular intervals. Outside players, S Sriram (14) and captain Amol Mazumder (0), also could not contribute to the total.
Parvez Aziz was the top scorer with 87-ball 36 while Deepak Sharma added 27. Tarjinder Singh and Dhiraj Goswami added 25 each while tailenders � Sujay Tarafdar 916) and Arlen Konwar (15) � made some useful contributions.
Abhishek Srinivasan took two wickets for 8, while R Ashwin and S Sam scalped one each.
SCORECARD
Assam 1st innings: Jadhav c Karthik b Sam 4, P Aziz c Badrinath b Balaji 36, S Sriram c Arun Karthik b Balaji 14, Deepak Sharma run out 27, AA Muzumdar c Karthik b Balaji 0, Tarjinder Singh c Karthik b Ashwin 25, K Saikia c Karthik b Balaji 4, DS Goswami lbw b Aushik Srinivas 25, S Tarafdar c Sam b Aushik Srinivas 16, A Konwar not out 15, RL Mali run out 0. Extras: (b 6, lb 6, nb 6) 18. Total: (all out; 72.5 overs) 184. Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-58, 3-67, 4-73, 5-118, 6-119, 7-123, 8-162, 9-181, 10-184. Bowling: L Balaji 17-4-53-4, C Ganapathy 7-3-6-0, R Ashwin 19-2-51-1, S Sam 11-2-36-1, A Mukund 7-0-12-0, R Sathish 5-2-6-0, R Aushik Srinivas 6.5-3-8-2.
Tamil Nadu 1st innings: A Mukund not out 8, S Anirudha not out 13. Extras: 0. Total: (0 wickets; 13 overs) 21. Bowling: S Tarafdar 3-2-6-0, RL Mali 5-3-6-0, DS Goswami 3-2-7-0, A Konwar 1-1-0-0, S Sriram 1-0-2-0.
