Ranji Trophy 2025/26
GROUP A
Coimbatore, Oct 18: Jharkhand humbled former champions Tamil Nadu by an innings and 114 runs with young off-spinner Rishav Raj, playing his maiden first-class match, grabbing four wickets on the fourth and final day of the Ranji Trophy Group A match, here Saturday.
With Jharkhand virtually assured of a victory on Friday after asking Tamil Nadu to follow-on, it was a matter of time before the fragile Tamil Nadu batting crumbled.
Rishav, 24, who had started the TN collapse on Friday by dismissing teenage opener, came back refreshed on the final day to take two more wickets to return excellent figures of 4/49 on debut.Jharkhand, who has scored 419 in the opening essay, had dismissed TN for 93 in the first innings and enforced a follow-on.But TN batters could not put up a fight and were dismissed for 212 in 79 overs as the Ishan Kishan-led side earned a bonus point.Kishan was declared ‘Player of the Match’ for his superb 173.Tamil Nadu could add just 11 runs to their overnight total before 17-year-old Jeganathan Hemchudeshan, making his first-class debut, was removed by pacer Sahil Raj (2/28), who finished the match with a six-wicket haul.
TN veteran batter Baba Indrajith, who has 16 first-class centuries, was the next to depart, beaten by Rishav’s spin to be caught by Shikhar Mohan on 22.
However promising batter C Andre Siddarth, playing his 10th First-class match, defied the Jharkhand bowling by playing cautiously to score a workmanlike 80 off 180 deliveries (12×4).The 19-year-old’s 100-run partnership with M Shahrukh Khan (37) guided TN from a dismal 93/5 to 193 before the latter was sent back by left-arm spinner Anukul Roy (3/42), as the slow bowlers dominated the proceedings.
The partnership broken, the last three wickets fell for 14 runs with injured tail-ender Balasubramaniam Sachin not coming out to bat. (PTI)
