GUWAHATI, Nov 4 � Assam began its Ranji Trophy campaign in a disappointing note as hosts Tamil Nadu posted a seven-wicket victory.
On the final day of the four-day match at Chennai today, requiring 120 for an outright victory in the second innings, Tamil Nadu smacked up 123 for three in 25.2 overs after the tea break.
S Anirudha top scored with 48, while A Mukund contributed 32. R Sathis remained unbeaten with 27.
Starting their second innings at the overnight total of 159 for four, Assam gathered 281 losing all the wickets. The brightest part of the Assam innings was a 112-run partnership between S Sriram and Tarjinder Singh. Sriram cracked 121 off 234 balls while Tarjinder was unlucky to miss his maiden Ranji ton by just one run. Tarjinder�s 99 came off 207 balls. He hit 12 boundaries during his courageous knock. Sriram�s delightful innings was studded with 15 hits to the rope. Other Assam batsmen miserably failed to counter the Tamil Nadu attack and even failed to reach double figures.
Debutant S Sam took four Assam wickets in the second innings, while Balaji and R Ashwin bagged two wickets each.
From this match Tamil Nadu got full five points against Assam�s nil.
SCORECARD
Assam 1st innings: 184
Tamil Nadu 1st innings: 346
Assam 2nd innings: Jadhav c Ganapathy b Ashwin 38, Aziz c Karthik b Ganapathy 2, Sriram b Ashwin 121, Muzumdar lbw b Balaji 2, Deepak Sharma c Mukund b Balaji 2, Tarjinder Singh c Anirudha b Sam 99, K Saikia lbw b Aushik Srinivas 7, DS Goswami c Sathish b Sam 0, S Tarafdar lbw b Sam 0, A Konwar c Karthik b Sam 2, RL Mali not out 1. Extras: (lb 2, w 1, nb 4) 7. Total: (all out; 110 overs) 281. Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-114, 3-116, 4-118, 5-230, 6-247, 7-252, 8-256, 9-276, 10-281.Bowling: L Balaji 14-5-23-2, C Ganapathy 14-4-31-1, R Ashwin 34-7-74-2, S Sam 17-5-56-4, R Aushik Srinivas 23-6-75-1, A Mukund 2-0-11-0, R Sathish 6-3-9-0.
Tamil Nadu 2nd innings: A Mukund b Konwar 32, S Anirudha c Tarafdar b Goswami 48, KD Karthik c Aziz b Konwar 0, R Sathish not out 27, S Badrinath not out 6. Extras: (lb 5, nb 5) 10. Total: (3 wickets; 25.2 overs) 123. Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-65, 3-102. Bowling: RL Mali 5-0-21-0, DS Goswami 7-1-27-1, S Tarafdar 5-0-27-0, A Konwar 5-0-25-2, P Aziz 1-0-2-0, Tarjinder Singh 2.2-0-16-0.
