Despite some splendid bowling by former Indian off spinner AashishKapoor, Tamil Nadu were badly placed at stumps on the third day oftheir Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Baroda at the Gujarat StateFertilizer Corporation ground in Baroda on
Staff Reporter24-Mar-2001Despite some splendid bowling by former Indian off spinner AashishKapoor, Tamil Nadu were badly placed at stumps on the third day oftheir Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Baroda at the Gujarat StateFertilizer Corporation ground in Baroda on Saturday. After conceding afirst innings lead of 139, Tamil Nadu did well to dismiss Baroda for184 in their second innings thanks in the main to Kapoor who finishedwith seven for 59 off 23 overs. However, requiring 324 for a win,Tamil Nadu at stumps were facing defeat having made but 50 for threewickets.An action packed day started with Tamil Nadu medium pacers Mahesh andShrinivas dismissing Satyajit Parab (0) and Himanshu Jadhav (2).Opener Connor Williams, who was in an aggressive mood, was finallystumped by Reuben Paul off Kapoor for 47. Williams faced 70 balls andhit nine of the to the ropes. Kapoor then took wickets at regularintervals and Baroda at one stage were 90 for seven. However Indianstumper Nayan Mongia held firm and he and Rakesh Patel (39) shared avital stand of 66 runs for the eighth wicket which came off 15 overs.Patel was finally caught by Vidyut off Kapoor after facing 55 ballsand hitting five fours and a six. The end of the innings came shortlyafterwards but Mongia remained unbeaten with a fighting 61. He faced97 balls and hit six fours and a six.Tamil Nadu started their tough task on a wrong footing with SBadrinath falling leg before to Patel off the first ball of theinnings. Skipper Sridharan Sriram (25) and Hemanth Kumar (18 not out)added 35 careful runs off 17.3 overs but then Ajit Bhoite struck twoblows in quick succession to have the visitors reeling. First, he hadSriram caught by Patel and then he had prolific run getter Sharathcaught by Mongia for one. Hemanth Kumar and T Kumaran (3) played outthe remaining overs till stumps but Tamil Nadu, still needing 274 runsfor victory with seven wickets intact, face a herculean task tomorrow.