Vidarbha pacer Aditya Thakare (12-2-18-4) produced a high-quality display of fast bowling and blew the Tamil Nadu top-order away to bowl his side into a strong position on the second day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal clash here at the VCA ground on Sunday.
Thakare was relentless with his line and length probing around the off-stump and struck thrice in his first six overs. He then returned to break a crucial 95-run fifth-wicket partnership between C. Andre Siddharth (65) and Vijay Shankar when he had the latter caught behind. At stumps, the visitor was tottering at 159 for six in reply to the home team’s first-innings total of 353.
Thakare struck in his first over pegging back opener Mohammed Ali’s off-stump. He then had B. Sai Sudharsan – who cut one straight to backward point – before removing M. Boopathi Vaishna Kumar caught behind in his next over.
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The 18-year-old Andre, playing in his maiden season, walked in with his team in dire straits at 38 for four and played a brilliant counter-attacking knock to get his side back on track.
From the moment he got off the mark by flicking Bhutte nonchalantly over mid-wicket, Andre oozed style and class as he wielded his willow like a sword. He drove imperiously down the ground and was equally adept off the backfoot, cutting and punching anything slightly short. He brought up his half-century in style off just 58 balls, lofting Bhutte down the ground for a huge six.
Earlier, the hosts’ overnight batters Karun Nair (122) and Harsh Dubey (69) started the day positively against some ordinary bowling. Karun was severe on anything short, deploying his cut and pull shots to find the fence while Dubey scored his fourth half-century of the season to take the team past 300. TN came back in the final hour of the first session to bowl out Akshay Wadkar’s side at the stroke of lunch.