Ranji Trophy | Bad light thwarts Tamil Nadu’s thrilling victory push against Hyderabad

Tamil Nadu’s hopes for a quick end were thwarted by a gritty 10th wicket stand between Hyderabad’s Prateek Reddy and B. Punnaiah

Hyderabad stared at a probable defeat in the face of a fine spell by left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore and then a batting assault by openers B. Sai Sudarsan and N. Jagadeesan before bad light prevented what could have been a thrilling win for Tamil Nadu on the final day of the four-day Ranji Trophy cricket championship Elite Group B match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Friday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 28 for no loss after conceding a first innings lead of 115, Hyderabad looked good at 100 for no loss when captain Tanmay Agarwal (46, 76b, 5x4, 16) and Tanay Thyagarajan (69, 137b, 9x4)) were at the crease.

But once, Tanmay stepped out only to hole out to the fielder in the deep off Sai Kishore, Tamil Nadu came back strongly thanks to the spinner’s five-wicket haul as bowled a teasing line and length, getting the ball kicked off too. He even had the liberty of attacking batters with nine fielders around them and the first innings centurion Mickil Jaiswal was a victim of this ploy.

Once the well-set Thyagarajan was cleaned up by Sai Kishore with one which spun back sharply from outside the off-stump and later Mir Jaweed Ali steer into the lone slip fielder’s hands in the same over, Tamil Nadu was back on top.

But, Tamil Nadu’s hopes for a quick end were thwarted by a gritty 10th wicket stand between Prateek Reddy and B. Punnaiah, in terms of staying at the crease for eight overs.

Eventually, Tamil Nadu was set a daunting target of 144 in 11 possible overs to score an outright win.

Then, Sudharsan (42, 20b, 5x4) and Jagadeesan (59, 22b, 8x6) gave some anxious moments to the home team with some extraordinary strokes all round the wicket before bad light stopped play at 108 for 1 in seven overs much to the relief of Hyderabad players.