N. Jagadeesan notched up his maiden Ranji Trophy double century and carried his bat through (245 n.o., 402b, 25x4, 4x6) as Tamil Nadu posted 489 on day two of the third-round Group-C match against Railways at the SNR College cricket ground on Saturday.
Ranji Trophy HIGHLIGHTS, Round 3 Day 2 stumps
It seemed as if he felt liberated having been asked to open the innings and clutched at the chance as if was a lifeline. He was grateful to his skipper Sai Kishore for that. “It was an opportunity for me to do something up the order,” he had said on Friday.
The first three balls that he played on Saturday morning were suggestive of his intent. He offered the textbook front-foot defence for the first two balls off left-arm spinner Akash Pandey with a long stride out and still head. Then he switched gears and whacked a four to the long on boundary.
His batting approach has been the same throughout his marathon innings. Even when he was on 98, even when he was on 45, and even in the first hour or so on Friday when the pacers generated an unsettling bounce.
He got to his hundred with a big six, to his fifty with back-to-back fours, and dared to upper-cut for four during that bouncier phase.
“My mindset was pretty clear. I think it was to have intent from ball one. You need to put the bowler under pressure. And if you are able to put some fielders at the boundary line, then singles and doubles get easier. And once we start running hard, there will always be two different batters playing the bowlers. So, the chances of us getting more runs is a lot more,” he said on Friday.
It was inevitable that he would surpass his previous highest Ranji score of 183 on Saturday, and he did. It became inevitable that he would score a double hundred, and he achieved the feat. However, he failed to reach the 250-run mark as his team was bowled out.
Sai Kishore had said he would take total responsibility as a player for his team winning the match, and he backed up his words with an 85-ball 59. He hit three fours, and three straight sixes - two off off-spinner Shivam Chaudhary, and one off leg-spinner Karn Sharma.
Jagadeesan and Sai Kishore engaged in an 84-run seventh-wicket stand.
Sai Kishore was trapped in front by Karn, M. Mohammed was caught at second slip off Yuvraj Singh, as Ajith Ram and Sandeep Warrier were dismissed by left-arm spinner Mohammad Saif.
Earlier in the day, 19-year-old Mohamed Ali was dismissed caught at short leg off Akash. The reckless rush of youth got the better of him.
Later in the day, Sandeep Warrier had both the Railways openers bowled early in the innings. But left-hander Pratham Singh hit an unbeaten 76 (79b, 7x4, 4x6), and was involved in an unbroken 91-run third-wicket partnership with fellow left-hander Nishant Kushwah (22 batting).
Brief Scores: Stumps Day 2: Tamil Nadu 489 all out in 144 overs (N. Jagadeesan 245 not out, B Vaishna Kumar 67, R. Sai Kishore 59, Akash Pandey 3/102) vs Railways 126/2 in 35 overs (Pratham Singh 76 not out, Nishant Kushwah 22 not out); Railways trails by 363 Runs
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