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Rohtak: Former ICL player Rajagopal Sathish hit a brilliant century as Tamil Nadu beat Haryana to enter the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy by virtue of better run-rate at the Bansi Lal Stadium in Lahli on Monday.
Tamil Nadu will now meet Rajasthan in the semifinal to be played in Jaipur from January 3-6.
In another fog-hit day when 55 overs were possible, Tamil Nadu finished the proceedings at 285 for six in 79 overs courtesy Sathish's ton (106, 15x4, 131 balls) and his 91-run fifth wicket stand with skipper Dinesh Karthik who found some touch back with an useful half century (57, 95 balls, 8x4).
Amit Mishra and co, have every right to feel upset that Tamil Nadu were lucky enough to scrape through to the semis after having one of the most indifferent seasons in recent times. It was even more tragic that despite having upperhand during most of the sessions, Haryana would in any case have lost due to poor run quotient had a ball not been bowled on Monday.
It was pity that foggy weather became their undoing. Even on the day, Haryana new-ball bowlers Joginder Sharma and Sanjay Budhawar did well to dismiss two in-form batsmen in Abhinav Mukund and K Shrivasudevdas respectively.
While Mukund (34) was caught by Dhruv Singh off Budhawar, the wily Joginder rattled Shrivasudevdas' stumps as Tamil Nadu were reeling at 91 for four in the 34th over.
But Sathish came in and started playing shots from the word go. With an able ally skipper Karthik, the two slowly resurrected the innings and also scored runs at a steady pace.
With the match starting in the afternoon session, the pitch eased out a lot and Amit Mishra's failure with ball (0/53 in 12 overs) also affected Haryana's chances of trying to check the run-flow. With all-rounder Sachin Rana (0/46 in 10 overs) also getting some stick from Sathish, Tamil Nadu scored 99 runs from the 22 overs sent down by the duo.
By the time Karthik was trapped leg before by Budhawar, Tamil Nadu were enjoying a better run-rate.
However, with still close to two hours of play left, Chandrasekhar Ganapathy (17 not out , 100 mins, 80 balls) provided dogged resistance at the other end as he and Sathish added another 95 runs for the seventh wicket. More importantly Ganapathy defied the Haryana bowlers for an hour and 40 minutes and gave Mumbai Indians player a chance to ensure a safe semifinal passage for visitors.
Brief scores
Haryana 379 for 6 dec (Saini 150, Sunny Singh 102)
Tamil Nadu 285 for 6 (Sathish 106, Karthik 57)
Result Match drawn
Status Tamilnadu into semis as per run/rate
