Ranji Trophy: TN thrash Railways by an innings and 164 runs for 1st win of the season

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu kept their mathematical chances of making the Ranji knockouts alive by registering an innings and 164-run win over Railways in the final session of Day 2 at Chepauk on Monday.
Their first win of the season means TN have 12 points from 6 outings. They will need to win their final two matches with bonus points and then hope for other results to go in their favour to make the next stage of the competition.
The chief architect of TN's win was left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore whose 5 for 16 ensured Railways were bowled out for 90 in 36.4 overs.TN batsmen - earlier in the day - ended their opening essay on 330 to take a decisive 254-run first innings lead. After opener Abhinav Mukund lit up Day 1 with his 100, Dinesh Karthik and B Indrajith played their parts - scoring 58 each - as TN notched up a total that was more than enough to shut the visitors out of the contest.
Sai Kishore, who had little to do in the first innings as he delivered just two wicketless overs (2-1-5-0), looked in good shape the moment he was introduced in the 17th over. After left-arm pacer T Natarajan (2-15) had accounted for the openers, Sai Kishore took centrestage. In the company of R Ashwin (3 for 36), Sai Kishore ran through the Railways' line-up. Railways skipper Arindam Ghosh (22) was the 23-year-old's first victim of the day. "It was a wicket that had turn and bounce. I was in good rhythm to start with, and once I got Arindam's wicket my confidence went up as well," said Sai Kishore. Apart from Arindam, Vikrant Rajput (17) and Manish Rao (10) were the only Railways batsmen to reach double figures.
The southpaw made it clear that he didn't mind the fact that he only got two overs in the first innings. "By the time I was given the ball, both Siddharth and Ashwin had got the job done. There are occasions when you would get less overs, and sometimes more (overs). When I got the opportunity today, I wanted to make it count," Sai Kishore said.
Has the victory arrived a little too late? "Definitely not because we feel there is still a chance for us to make the knockouts. This win has given the team a lot of self-belief and we hope for the results to go in our favour in the coming matches as well," he added.
Scoreboard: Railways 1st innings: 76. Tamil Nadu 1st innings (O/N 236-4): Dinesh Karthik b Tyagi 58, B Indrajith lbw Sangwan 58, Pradosh Ranjan Paul c Shivendra b Avinash 20, R Ashwin c Manish b Avinash 9, R Sai Kishore c Saurabh b Tyagi 1, M Siddharth n.o. 0, T Natarajan c Shivendra b Tyagi 0; Extras: (b13) 13; Total (all out in 91 overs): 330; FoW: 1-56, 2-156, 3-198, 4-229, 5-242, 6-304, 7-323, 8-327, 9-330, 10-330; Himanshu 6-3-19-1, Avinash 29-4-107-3, Shivendra 24-1-92-1, Tyagi 31-7-98-5, Vikrant 1-0-1-0. Railways 2nd innings: Mrunal Devdhar c Karthik b Natarajan 4, Ashish Sehrawat c Indrajith b Natarajan 8, Vikrant Singh lbw Ashwin 17, Arindam Ghosh b Sai Kishore 22, Saurabh Singh c Suryapprakash b Ashwin 4, Dinesh Mor lbw Ashwin 3, Manish Rao lbw Sai Kishore 10, Harsh Tyagi n.o. 3, Avinash Yadav st Karthik b Sai Kishore 8, Shivendra Singh lbw Sai Kishore 0, Himanshu Sangwan c&b Sai Kishore 0; Extras: (b5, lb6) 11; Total (all out in 36.4 overs) 90; FoW: 1-4, 2-17, 3-53, 4-61, 5-64, 6-79, 7-81, 8-90, 9-90, 10-90; Bowling: Natarajan 5-1-15-2, Siddharth 8-4-12-0, Ashwin 13-2-36-3, Sai Kishore 10.4-5-16-5