Tamil Nadu bowled Rajasthan out for a paltry 97 before reaching 113 for five in their first innings on an action-filled opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' league match at Jaipur today.
At stumps, S Sarath was batting on 21 while S R Ganeshkumar was yet to open his account as the visitors mustered a slender lead of 16 runs.
As many as 15 wickets fell on the seamer-friendly pitch, but there was no devil as such in the Mansarovar Stadium wicket.
Put in to bat, the Rajasthan batsmen failed to find their bearings on home ground and were skittled out for 97 in 48.4 overs.
There was a semblance of resistance from Vineet Saxena (18), Rohit Jhalani (21), skipper P Krishnakumar (14) and Rahul Kanwat (14), but the rest just caved in.
Left-arm spinner R Ramkumar (4 for 41) and speedster L Balaji (3 for 26) inflicted maximum damage on the hapless Rajasthan batsmen.
But the hosts did have the consolation of hitting back as they claimed five Tamil Nadu wickets with 113 runs on the board.
Batting stars like S Ramesh (5) and S Sriram (24) disappointed as they failed to build on the advantage given to them by their bowlers.
S Badrinath appeared in good nick as he put on 50 runs with Sriram for the third wicket to stem the rot somewhat, but his knock was cut short at 43.
Scoreboard:Rajasthan 1st innings
V Saxena c Balaji b Suresh 18
G Khoda c Raju b Balaji 0
R Jhalani c Suresh b Ramkumar 21
N Doru c Gopal b Ramkumar 4
Krishnakumar run out 14
A Jain c Suresh b Ramkumar 0
S Sharma LBW b Balaji 5
R Kanwat LBW b Balaji 14
Shamsher Singh run out 5
M Aslam not out 8
S Mathur c Ganpathy b Ramkumar 2
Extras: (nb-5, wd-1) 6
Total: (all out in 48.4 overs) 97
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-41, 3-43, 4-55, 5-55, 6-63, 7-74, 8-81, 9-92.
Bowling: Laxmipathi Balaji 19-3-26-3, M R Srinivas 4-1-20-0, S Suresh 8-1-10-1, Ramkumar 17.4-2-41-4.
Tamil Nadu 1st innings
S Suresh LBW b Mathur 0
S Ramesh c Saxena b Krishnakumar 5
S Sriram c Jhalani b Kanwat 24
S Badrinath c Jain b Aslam 43
S Sharath batting 21
J R Madanagopal c Sharma b S Singh 10
R Ganesh Kumar batting 0
Extras: (b-8, nb-2) 10
Total: (for 5 wickets in 41 overs) 113
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-8, 3-58, 4-86, 5-112.
Bowling: Sumit Mathur 7-2-15-1, P Krishnakumar 4-1-15-1, Sanjeev Sharma 7-0-20-0, Mohammad Aslam 10-1-34-1, Rahul Kanwat 12-3-21-1, Shamsher Singh 1-1-0-1.
