Ranji Trophy: Clinical Tamil Nadu on top against Railways

CHENNAI: For the first time in the ongoing Ranji season, Tamil Nadu's bowling and batting fired in unison as they were in a commanding position after Day 1 of their clash against Railways at Chepauk on Sunday.
If the home team's bowlers - R Ashwin (4 for 26) and left-arm spinner M Siddharth (4 for 32) - were instrumental in Railways being shot for 76 in the first session, the subsequent period of play saw opener Abhinav Mukund - playing his 100th Ranji game - score a crisp 100 to help TN end the day on 236 for 4.
On a wicket that was taking turn from the word go, Railways' innings never got going. Siddharth began Railways' slide in his 4th over when he had their opener Mrunal Devdhar (5) caught by Ashwin. Siddharth - who bowled 17 overs on the trot from the Pavilion End - was spot on with his length and didn't allow the batsmen to get their eye in.
While Siddharth had left-arm pacer T Natarajan (1 for 7) for company in his first six overs, he benefitted with Ashwin's arrival in the 13th over of the day. "He was giving me specific inputs which came in handy. When you are bowling longer spells with someone like Ashwin, you get to learn a lot," said Siddharth at the end of the day's play.
Once Siddharth and Natarajan did the initial damage, Ashwin gave the finishing touches as Railways' innings concluded at the stroke of lunch. For Railways, only opener Ashish Sehrawat (15), Saurabh Singh (22) and Shivendra Singh (10) managed to reach double figures.
Once TN's bowlers had put the side on the ascendancy, it was the turn of the batsmen to join the party. The post-lunch session belonged to Abhinav. The southpaw was at his fluent best as he played shots on both sides of the wicket and raced to his 30th first-class hundred in 107 deliveries. His innings contained 12 fours and 3 sixes.
In the company of L Suryapprakash (50, 7x4), Abhinav added 156 for the first wicket. Railways' twin strikes saw TN lose both their opener at the score of 156. However, Dinesh Karthik's unbeaten 55-ball 57 made sure TN had taken a 160-run lead with six wickets remaining at close of play.
Railways 1st innings: M Devdhar c Ashwin b Siddharth 5, A Sehrawat c Abhinav b Siddharth 15, V Singh c Karthik b Natarajan 1, A Ghosh c Aparajith b Siddharth 1, Saurabh Singh c Suryapprakash b Ashwin 22, Dinesh Mor c Aparajith b Siddharth 6, Manish Rao lbw Ashwin 2, Harsh Tyagi c Aparajith b Ashwin 5, Avinash Yadav b Ashwin 1, Shivendra Singh n.o. 10, H Sangwan run out 1; Extras: (b4, lb2, n1) 7; Total (all out in 39.1 overs) 76; FoW: 1-15, 2-16, 3-20, 4-33, 5-43, 6-48, 7-54, 8-56, 9-75, 10-76; Bowling: Natarajan 6-3-7-1, Siddharth 17.1-5-32-4, Ashwin 14-3-26-4, Sai Kishore 2-1-5-0. Tamil Nadu 1st innings: Abhinav Mukund c Devdhar b Singh 100, Suryappakash c&b Tyagi 50, Kaushik Gandhi c Devdhar b Yadav 8, Dinesh Karthik batting 57, Aparajith lbw Tyagi 13, B Indrajith batting 2; Extras: (b6) 6; Total (for 4 wickets in 53 overs) 236; FoW: 1-156, 2-156, 3-198; 4-229; Sangwan 3-0-19-0, Yadav 15-1-71-1, Shivendra 17-1-74-1, Tyagi 17-3-65-2, Vikrant 1-0-1-0