Tamil Nadu falters after good start against UP

Asked to bat first, TN was off to an impressive start through its openers in V Ganga Sridhar Raju and L Suryaprakash who added 79 runs in 27 overs. But the introduction of left-arm orthodox spinner, Saurabh Kumar, put the brakes on the scoring as he removed Sridhar Raju for 45.

In walked M Kaushik Gandhi, who scored a ton in the last game against Madhya Pradesh, but he fell cheaply for seven caught behind off pacer Ankit Rajpoot. TN received another jolt quickly losing the key wicket of in-form batsman B Aparajith castled by Rajpoot for zero. The scorebaord then read 102 for three.

The onus was on skipper Vijay Shankar, who missed the game against MP due to injury, to steady the ship along with Suryaprakash.

Shankar batted aggressively from the word go scoring five boundaries but soon lost his wicket to leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari for 24 off 17.

Wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan took his time to settle down before striking three boundaries in his knock of 18. He was stumped off Saurabh Kumar while trying to go for a big hit.

Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 165/6 in 56 overs (V Ganga Sridhar Raju 45, L Suryaprakash 51, Saurabh Kumar 3/39) vs Uttar Pradesh