Skipper R. Sai Kishore led from the front with his eighth five-wicket haul in First Class cricket to bowl Tamil Nadu to an innings and 293-run win over Chandigarh on day three of the Ranji Trophy clash here at the Sri Ramakrishna College ground on Sunday.
For the second time in as many matches, TN has managed to wrap up the tie on the third day and pocket another seven points, taking its tally to 15 after four outings.
Needing to score 500 to make the home team bat again, Chandigarh managed just 206, with only Ankit Kaushik making a valiant unbeaten half-century.
Though Chandigarh came up with a slightly better batting effort than the first innings, Sai Kishore and fellow left-arm spinner Ajith Ram were too good for the visitors.
The TN skipper was relentless with his line and length, using his height well to get extra bounce to have the batters in a quandary.
Following a solid start from the openers, Sai Kishore removed Arslan Khan and then had the other opener, Harnoor Singh, trapped leg-before.
Just when a partnership was developing, the lanky left-arm tweaker had Kunal Mahajan caught behind. Like in the first innings, shortly after lunch, there was a needless run-out with a mix-up between Manan Vohra and non-striker Mayank Sidhu, who tried to pinch a single only to be sent back by the former. Skipper Vohra perished when he attempted to cut Ajith Ram, but his shot deflected off B. Sachin’s forearm at gully and lobbed to Pradosh Ranjan Paul at slip.
Kaushik and Gurinder Singh delayed the inevitable for a while with a 64-run stand for the seventh wicket before Sai Kishore had the latter caught at slip with a classical left-arm spinner delivery that turned sharply to take the outside edge.
The skipper then had his former TN teammate M. Ashwin stumped to clinch his five-for as TN romped home to a big win that should take the side to the top of the table in Group-C.
The scores:
Chandigarh —1st innings: 111.
Tamil Nadu —1st innings: 610/4 decl.
Chandigarh —2nd innings: Mohd. Arslan Khan b Sai Kishore 9, Harnoor Singh lbw b Sai Kishore 21, Mayank Sindhu (run out) 38, Kunal Mahajan c (sub) b Sai Kishore 17, Manan Vohra c Pradosh b Ajith Ram 16, Ankit Kaushik (not out) 50, Rajangad Bawa c (sub) b Warrier 5, Gurinder Singh c Pradosh b Sai Kishore 35, Arpit Singh b Ajith Ram 1, M. Ashwin st Jagadeesan b Sai Kishore 8, Hartejassvi Kapoor c Sai Kishore b Ajith Ram 1, Extras (b-1, lb-3, w-1): 5; Total (in 71 overs): 206.
Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-32, 3-76, 4-102, 5-104, 6-109, 7-173, 8-178, 9-197
Tamil Nadu bowling: Warrier 11-1-33-1, Sai Kishore 30-9-80-5, Kuldeep 7-2-29-0, Ajith Ram 20-5-42-3, Mohammed Ali 3-0-18-0.
Tamil Nadu won by an innings and 293 runs.
Points: TN 7 (15), Chandigarh 0 (3).
