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Chennai: It all started in the first over and by the time the teams trooped out of the ground after a six-hour grind, Tamil Nadu were clearly up against it.
Lakshmipathy Balaji looked a little ruffled when he was taken for 17 by Rajasthan openers Vineet Saxena and Aakash Chopra in the first over, and it seemed that he had lost the plot straight away. Not that Saxena (batting on 120) and Chopra (batting on 86) carried on in the same attacking vein right through the day, but they ensured the defending champions were in pole position at the end of the first day of the Ranji Trophy final.
Ideally another 50 runs would have been fine, but any captain would take 221 for no loss after winning the toss and batting first. If TN had thought after the first-over assault that Chopra and Saxena would carry on in the same attacking mould, they were mistaken. Anything that was pitched outside the off-stump was let alone by Chopra and the veteran only bothered to play when the ball drifted towards his legs. Saxena, too, followed his senior partner and the gentle outswing of Balaji and Yo Mahesh, that has looked so potent right through the tournament, was rendered toothless. J Kaushik tried a few things but that didn't make much of a difference.
Midway through the first session, Chopra was hit below his right eye off a bouncer from Kaushik, and TN probably thought that the opener would retire hurt, allowing them a window of opportunity. But that was not to be and Chopra carried on after some treatment, which inspired Saxena to show the same application. "It was entirely his decision to carry on and it showed how committed a cricketer he is," Saxena said later.
With no returns from the pacers, Balaji went to his spinners. When left-armer Aushik Srinivas got some turn coming round the wicket, one hoped that there would be something encouraging to follow. But that was just a flash in the pan and by the end of the day, all Aushik was doing was to come over the wicket and pitch it outside the leg-stump to stem the run flow. With Chopra and Saxena choosing to use their pads, there was a point in time after tea when the game was going nowhere.
It needed part-timer Abhinav Mukund to come closest to taking a wicket. But English umpire PJ Hartley wasn't in the mood to oblige. And when he tucked one on his leg to complete his 10th first-class century, it was just reward for a hard day's work.
Brief scores
Rajasthan 221 for 0 (Saxena 120*, Chopra 86*)
