Local lad and opener N. Jagadeesan brought up his first Ranji Trophy hundred (155 batting, 254b, 16x4, 3x6) on his home ground as emphatically as hitting a six down the ground off left-arm spinner Akash Pandey and raising his arms in exhilaration to help Tamil Nadu get to 286 for five on day one of the third-round Group-C match versus Railways at the SNR College cricket ground here on Friday.
It’s his seventh first-class hundred overall.
He engaged in a 142-run fifth-wicket partnership with left-hander M. Boopathi Vaishna Kumar (67, 128b, 6x4), who scored his maiden first-class fifty in his second first-class match.
He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Tamil Nadu in the second round versus Tripura.
Railways pacers Yuvraj Singh and Kunal Yadav extracted remarkable bounce within the first hour of the day’s play. Opener and left-hander R. Vimal Khumar edged one short of gully and was beaten by bounce before Yuvraj bowled him with one that hit the top of the off-stump. Another left-arm batter B. Sachin nicked one short of second slip off Kunal.
It wasn’t easy handling for Jagadeesan too. But he also upper-cut a bouncer off Kunal for four and ably weathered the initial pacer-bounce to bring up his fifty off 84 balls with eight fours. He’d spectacularly straight drove, flicked to backward square leg, and cover drove for fours off Kunal.
A ball after Jagadeesan got to his fifty, Sachin stepped out and was stumped off Akash.
After lunch, Jagadeesan hit two straight sixes off Akash and the leg-spinner Karn Sharma, and Railways picked up two quick wickets.
Baba Indrajith was caught behind by Akash and Vijay Shankar missed his sweep to be lbw off Karn in the space of three overs.
Left-arm spinner Mohammad Saif struck late in the day when he had Boopathi Vaishna Kumar caught behind.
Shortly after, Jagadeesan raised his second first-class 150. His first is his highest first-class score of 183. He’s batted well enough to suggest he may surpass it tomorrow.
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