Ranji Trophy 2023-24: Mohammed, Warrier heroics with bat and ball hand TN advantage against Gujarat on Day 2

On the opening day of the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season, M. Mohammed and Sandeep Warrier mixed to take 9 wickets between them to assist Tamil Nadu (TN) prohibit Gujarat to 236 within the first innings.

On day two, it was left to the duo to bail TN out with the bat as effectively from a precarious state of affairs of 119 for eight. Their sensational 116-run stand for the ninth wicket helped the customer ultimately take a 14-run lead on the Sardar Patel Stadium on Saturday.

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Mohammed – who scalped a fifer on Friday – led the best way with a scintillating 85 (99b, 11×4, 4×6), full of highly effective strikes down the bottom and a few eye-catching drives via the off-side. At the opposite finish, Warrier (38) simply bought behind the road of the ball towards the quicks and regarded untroubled.

Mohammed took the bowlers on when peppered with bouncers with clear pull photographs that sailed over the leg-side fence. He then went after medium-pacer Ripal Patel, lofting him down the bottom and accumulating two fours and two sixes, the final of which landed past the stadium roof and bought him to his half-century in model. From there on, the duo performed sensibly to get inside two runs of taking the lead earlier than Mohammed was dismissed.

In the primary session, the TN high order was discovered wanting towards the Gujarat pacers to be decreased to 18 for 4, with batters getting caught behind poking exterior the off-stump tentatively.

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Left-arm seamer Arzan Nagwaswalla was notably spectacular, taking three of the primary 5 wickets earlier than leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi scalped 4, together with that of a well-set Vijay Shankar, bowled via the gate off a googly.

Later within the night, Warrier shone with the ball once more, taking three wickets in his first two overs because the host completed the day on 38 for 3, 24 runs forward, with the match evenly poised on the midway stage.

Speaking after the day’s play, Gujarat coach Ramesh Powar credited his bowlers for doing effectively to take away the TN top-order cheaply regardless of conceding the lead.

“The game is well-balanced and we need to score well tomorrow. We bowled well, but we must also give Mohammed credit as well. He hardly gave any chances. Coming at number nine, he played better than their top-order,” mentioned Powar.

When requested if his bowlers overdid the short-pitched stuff, the previous India off-spinner defined, “We did well to get eight wickets. But once the pitch became slow, we had to try something. It might not always work, but our bowlers did well to get them to 120 for eight. In low-scoring games, you can always come back.”