Chennai: The Ranji Trophy match between Tamil Nadu and Saurashtra continued to defy predictions. An unusual Chepauk wicket had the seamers in delight for its greenish surface on day one, but what followed was a surprise domination of the willow. In pursuit of the hosts' mammoth 565 for eight, Saurashtra began their chase on day three and startingly ended Saturday's play posing a big threat to overhaul Tamil Nadu's challenging first innings total.
At stumps, Saurashtra were 326 for three in 93 overs with their trump card Cheteshwar Pujara still looking solid on 152. An unconquered stand of 260 between Pujara and skipper Jaydev Shah had sent Tamil Nadu on a leather chase and now the pressure is on the home team to halt Saurashtra's march before they could chase down the deficit of 239 and take three points.
The conditions during the first session looked conducive for fast bowlers and Tamil Nadu started the day promisingly by removing Saurashtra's second wicket without allowing them to add a run to their overnight score of 12. Bhusan Chouhan paid the price for playing away from the body as the opener was caught behind off L. Balaji in the second over of the day .
Talented Sheldon Jackson put on a half-century stand with Pujara before he was removed by a deceptive part-time medium pacer R.
Prasanna. Another nick to the wicket-keeper.
TN had a golden chance to take the upper hand when Balaji, the only bowler who constantly troubled the Saurashtra batsmen, forced the new batsman Shah to edge, but the starightforward catch was dropped by M. Vijay at second slip.
Shah, who was on eight then, went on to haunt the hosts. The way he constructed the innings after the reprieve had a resemblance to Dinesh Karthik's aggressive knock.
Shah took a particular liking for slow bowlers. Leftarm spinner Aushik Srinivas and offie B.Aparajith were clubbed for three big sixes each. The one off Aparajith over a sight screen drew a loud cheer from the sparse crowd. At the other end, Pujara was a class act.
Puncuatuted with backfoot punches, wristy flicks and ferocious cover-drives, Pujara's knock spoke volumes about his confidence.
Balaji kept shuffling his bowlers, but there was no stopping the rampaging duo. A crisp on-drive off Vijay dissected the fielders for a boundary at mid-wicket as Pujara raked in his 25th first-class hundred in 179 balls.
The miserable day exposed Tami Nadu's shortcomings in bowling that looked pedestrian except for the captain who bowled in short spells.
SCORECARD Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 565/8 decl Saurashtra (1st innings): Bhusan Chauhan c Dinesh Karthik b L. Balaji 3, Sagar Jogiyani (run out) 0, Cheteshwar Pujara (batting) 152, Sheldon Jackson c Dinesh Karthik b Prasanna 28, Jaydev Shah (not out) 133. Extras (b1, lb2, nb7) 10.
Total (for three wickets in 93 overs) 326.
FoW: 1-2, 2-12, 3-66. Bowling: Balaji 19-7-42-1, Aswin 11-1-53-0, Kaushik 19-3-69-0, Prasanna 8-126-1, Aushik 23-5-77-0, Aparajith 9-2-31-0, Indrajith 3-0-16-0, Vijay 10-9-0.
