Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt scalped six wickets on a turning wicket as Baroda placed themselves on course for a comfortable victory against hosts Tamil Nadu in their Group B Ranji Trophy cricket match here today.
Bhatt's brilliant figures of 6/58 helped Baroda shot Tamil Nadu out for 155 in 59.4 overs in their second innings, leaving the visiting side 122 runs to score in their second innings to win the match at the M A Chidambaram Stadium.
Bhatt has taken 10 wickets in total in the match as he had scalped four in Tamil Nadu first innings.
At stumps, Baroda were four for no loss from two overs, needing another 117 runs to win the match with all their second innings wicket in hand.
Resuming at their overnight score of 33 for 1, Baroda opener Kedar Devdhar (40, 76b, 4x4) and captain Aditya Waghmode (21, 58b, 2x4) batted cautiously and stitched 42 runs between them before the latter was caught at short leg by Baba Indrajith off Chandrasekar.
After that, Yusuf Pathan was the lone batsman who played with aggression against the spinners in particular for his 43 ball 41 (2x4, 2x6) while wickets fell at the other end.
Finally, Baroda could muster 159 all out for a first innings lead of 34 runs.
Later, when Tamil Nadu commenced their second essay, the story was the same like their first innings as captain and left-handed batsman, Abhinav Mukund was dismissed for a duck when he was brilliantly caught by Deepak Hooda at mid wicket of the bowling of left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh.
Opener Bharath Shankar (15) and Baba Aparajith took the score to 49 for 2 but soon Aparajith too left the middle, caught by wicket keeper Pinal shah of the bowling of Bhatt for 39 (4x4, 1x6) and the hosts were 56 for 3.
With only the brothers Aparajith (39) and Indrajith contributing 74 runs, Tamil Nadu were dismissed for 155 in their second innings.
Brief Scores:
Tamil Nadu: 125 and 155 all out in 59.4 overs (Baba Aparajith 39; Bhargav Bhatt 6/58).
Baroda: 159 all out in 49.2 overs (Yusuf Pathan 41; Rahil Shah 4/38, D T Chandrasekar 4/50).
