S Badrinath and Baba Aparajith slammed a century each to take Tamil Nadu to a commanding position at the end of the opening day's play in a Group B match of the Ranji Trophy, here today.
At stumps, Tamil Nadu were sitting pretty at 294 for the loss of three wickets with Badrinath still going strong.
While Badrinath remained unbeaten on 126, Aparajith got out in the penultimate over of the day after scoring an impressive 118 that came off 194 balls.
Badrinath struck 16 hits to the fence during his 241-ball unbeaten knock, while Aparajith decorated his innings with 14 fours and two sixes.
Sent into bat, Tamil Nadu lost openers Abhinav Mukund (13) and K B Arun Karthik (31) at the team score of 53.
But then Badrinath and Aparajith joined hands and stitched a mammoth 24-run third wicket partnership to guide Tamil Nadu to the formidable position.
Aparajith finally departed in the 89th over, edging a Ishwar Pandey delivery straight to Naman Ojha behind the wicket.
Dinesh Karthik was the other unbeaten batsman at the crease along with Badrinath at the close of play.
For Madhya Pradesh, pace trio of Amarjeet Singh (1/38), Pandey (1/57) and Salman Baig (1/76) picked up a wicket each.
Brief Scores:
Tamil Nadu: 294 for three in 90 overs (S Badrinath 126 not out, Baba Aparajith 118; Amarjeet Singh 1/38).
