Test stars come crashing down

Tribune News Service

Advertisement

New Delhi, December 23

Less than a week ago, Karnataka batsmen KL Rahul and Karun Nair contributed 502 runs in India’s total of 759/7 in the fifth Test against England at Chennai. They played a total of 692 deliveries, hit a combined 48 fours (192 runs) and seven sixers (42 runs). They made an international attack that included Stuart Broad (368 Test wickets), Ben Stokes (79) and Moeen Ali (98) look helpless.

Today, playing against Tamil Nadu in the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy at Visakhapatnam, Rahul and Nair were rudely brought back to earth — they made a total of 18 runs. The two faced a total of 41 balls and hit four fours before being removed by unheralded pace bowlers. 

Thangarasu Natarajan, who has played seven first-class matches, had Rahul caught by Baba Aparajith for four runs off three balls. Antony Chandrasekaran Aswin Crist, with 21 first-class matches, is the leader of the Tamil Nadu attack and he was the man to dismiss Nair, for 14 runs. Nair managed to hang in there for 55 minutes, during which time he played 38 balls and hit three fours.

Batting first on the first day of the five-day match, Karnataka were shot out for 88 in just 37.1 overs, ie 223 balls. Tamil Nadu had reached 111/4 at the end of play on Day 1, for a lead of 23 runs. Manish Pandey top-scored for Karnataka with 28 off 52 balls.

High expectations

In the days leading to the quarterfinal between the two neighbouring states, Rahul and Nair had become the men to focus on in this match. In Chennai against England, Nair had ended up with a very impressive 303 not out on the fourth day, while Rahul had fallen for 199 on the third day.

The two returned from India duty to strengthen Karnataka against Tamil Nadu. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu’s India stars Ravichandran Ashwin and Murali Vijay could not figure in the quarterfinal because they are recovering from injuries. 

It was felt that Karnataka — and Rahul and Nair in particular — would crush Tamil Nadu’s inexperienced pace attack, which has a combined experience of merely 35 first-class matches.

Nadeem’s fifer puts Haryana on back foot 

Vadodara: Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem picked a five-wicket haul to help Jharkhand reduce Haryana to 251/7 on the opening day of their quarterfinal here today. Nadeem (5/75) singlehandedly demolished Haryana’s top-order, accounting for the top five batsmen to give an edge to Jharkhand.

Nadeem dismissed Nitin Saini (22), Shubham Rohilla (18), Shivam Chauhan (23), Chirag Bishnoi (41) and Rajat Paliwal (42). Sanjay Pahal (38 not out) and Harshal Patel (22 not out) were at the crease at the close of play on the first day.

All Haryana batsmen got starts but failed to convert them into big scores. The onus now is on Pahal and the remaining batsmen to take Haryana past the 300-run mark.

Ranji quarters: Brief scores 

• Haryana: 251 for seven in 90 overs (Rajat Paliwal 42, Chirag Bishnoi 41; Shahbaz Nadeem 5/75) vs 
• Jharkhand
• Karnataka 88 all out (Manish Pandey 28; Aswin Crist 6/31, T Natrajan 3/18); Tamil Nadu 111/4 (Vijay Shankar 34; Arvind Sreenath 2/14)
• Gujarat 197/6 (Chirag Gandhi 62*, R Kalaria 59*; Deepak Behera 3/36, Basant Mohanty 2/48) vs Odisha
• Mumbai 250/5 (Siddhesh Lad 101* , Aditya Tare 73, Abhishek Nayar 46*, Chama Milind 3/64) vs 
• Hyderabad.