For all the top-notch white-ball format performances Tamil Nadu have notched up in recent years, their form in red-ball cricket has remained flat. Tamil Nadu’s domestic season began with a bang when they won the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and subsequently made the Vijay Hazare Trophy final. But their season ended with a whimper as they exited Ranji Trophy in the league stages. TOI lists out the pluses and minuses in Tamil Nadu’s below-par Ranji season.
Positives:
Indrajith’s stupendous run of form: With 396 runs in 3 Ranji games, Baba Indrajith was the team’s standout performer. Indrajith’s assured presence was a big plus for the side. The 27-year-old notched up scores of 117, 127, 100 and 52 in the four innings he batted and showed why he is rated so highly.
Shahrukh’s red-ball moment: Before this first-class season commenced, M Shahrukh Khan had neither scored a hundred nor taken a wicket in the red-ball format. By the end of it, Shahrukh achieved both. He smashed a blistering 194 in the opening game against Delhi and showed he had the game and the temperament to bat in this format. To top that, he also bagged figures of 3-36 Saurabh Tiwary being his maiden first-class wicket in the final league clash against Jharkhand.
Negatives:
Starting trouble: Barring the first game against Delhi where Tamil Nadu openers Kaushik Gandhi and L Suryapprakash added 53 for the opening wicket, the two failed to make a substantial contribution. The duo could only stitch opening stands of 37, 15 and 2 in the matches against Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand which was woefully short.
Lack of depth in pace attack: T Natarajan, recuperating from a knee niggle, was missed. With his ability to bowl yorkers and keep things tight, Tamil Nadu possessed a bowler who could open up a match. The bowling surely lacked depth. Medium-pacers Sandeep Warrier (4 wickets in 3 games at an average of 70.50) and M Mohammed (6 scalps in 3 matches) bowled their hearts out but failed to create many opportunities with the ball.
Clinching the crunch situations: Tamil Nadu failed to seize the crucial moments in their last two league matches. Against Chhattisgarh, they failed to polish off the tail in the first innings. The last two wickets batted for over 50 overs which affected Tamil Nadu’s chance to bag 7 points. If that wasn’t enough, Tamil Nadu batsmen --- on Day 3 against Jharkhand --- fell to loose shots and failed to score those extra 60-70 runs in the second innings which could have come handy.
