Ranji Trophy: Mukund cracks unbeaten 111, leads TN fightback against HP

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu was playing catch-up with Himachal Pradesh as Day 3 of their Ranji clash concluded at Dharamsala with the visitors trailing by 58 runs. For the home side, left-hander Ankit Kalsi's (144 n.o., 21x4) third first-class century helped the side finish with 463, thereby taking a huge first-innings lead of 236 runs. In reply, TN ended on 178 for 2 with opener Abhinav Mukund remaining unbeaten on 111.
Having started the day on 99, Kalsi got into the groove and kept the scoreboard moving with some purposeful hitting. For TN, left-arm pacer T Natarajan shone with figures of 5 for 122, and was instrumental in breaking the 123-run stand between Rishi Dhawan (75, 14x4) and Kalsi as he cleaned up the former. Kalsi got handy contributions from Pankaj Jaiswal (24, 3x4, 2x6) and Mayank Dagar (28, 6x4) in the lower-order as they finished with a 200-plus lead.
Natarajan, in the company of left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (2 for 62), tried to slow the pace of Himachal's onslaught but it was too little too late. In their second innings, TN tried to go for a quick start and promoted Dinesh Karthik to open alongside Abhinav. But the move backfired as Karthik was bowled for 1. From thereon, B Aparajith (24, 2x4) and Abhinav (111 n.o., 16x4) steadied the ship with their 90-run second-wicket stand. Abhinav looked in great touch as he thwarted the Himachal attack with some silken drives and fierce cuts. Despite losing Aparajith, Abhinav was going great guns alongside skipper Indrajith with whom he had added 88 runs in an unfinished third-wicket stand.
Indrajith defended the move to go with Karthik at the top of the order. "The move to go with Karthik to open was to see if we could get some quick runs at the start. Had we got a fiery opening partnership, then the 200-plus deficit could have been erased today itself but that didn't happen," TN skipper Indrajith told TOI.
Scoreboard: TN 1st innings: 227. Himachal Pradesh 1st innings (O/N 340-5): Ankit Kalsi n.o. 144, R Dhawan b Natarajan 75, Amit Kumar c Aparajith b Natarajan 6, MJ Dagar b Sai Kishore 28, P Jaiswal b Sai Kishore 24, A Guleria c Jagadeesan b Natarajan 4; Extras (b17, lb16, nb12, w2) 47; Total (all out in 116.2 overs): 463; FoW: 1-12, 2-31, 3-57, 4-131, 5-221, 6-344, 7-350, 8-394, 9-436, 10-463; Bowling: Natarajan 35.2-7-122-5, Mohammed 23-5-85-2, Tanwar 20-3-79-1, Shankar 13-0-63-0, Sai Kishore 22-6-62-2, Aparajith 2-0-13-0, Shahrukh Khan 1-0-6-0. TN 2nd Innings: D Karthik c Bains b Jaiswal 1, Abhinav Mukund n.o. 111, B Aparajith c Chopra b Raghav Dhawan 24, B Indrajith n.o. 36; Extras ((lb3, nb1, w2) 6; Total (For 2 wickets in 57 overs): 178; FoW: 1-5, 2-90; Bowling: Guleria 12-4-31-0, Jaiswal 8-4-20-1, R Dhawan 10-2-27-0, Gurvinder 9-1-19-0, Raghav 6-0-28-1, Chopra 4-0-25-0, Dagar 8-0-25-0