Left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma grabbed four wickets in an impressive spell after his captain Devendra Bundela hit a century as Madhya Pradesh took control of their Ranji Trophy cricket match against Tamil Nadu on the second day here today.
Bundela struck 104 to join opener Jalaj Saxena (144) as the second centurion for Madhya Pradesh who scored 432 all out in their first innings after resuming the day at 250 for 4 at the M A Chidambaram Stadium.
Saxena added 24 runs to his overnight 120 to be the first MP batsman to be dismissed today.
Bundela, overnight 21, then took over and he added 83 more runs today to take MP to a big total. His 104 came from 231 balls and was studded with 15 fours.
Saxena and Bundela were together at the crease for 21.4 overs this morning, adding 120 runs for the fifth wicket.
Ankit displayed his all-round ability and made an elegant 62 of 76 balls with the help of six fours and three sixes.
For Tamil Nadu, Malolan Rengarajan grabbed seven wickets for 135 runs but his fine performance came at the expense of a big total for the visiting side.
In Tamil Nadu's reply, Ankit (4/60) opened the attack for Madhya Pradesh and was successful in the sixth ball of his first over as he dismissed opener K Bharath Shankar (1) and then claimed two more wickets -- that of Baba Aparajith (5) and Dinesh Karthik (6) -- in his second and third overs.
With Abhinav Mukund showing intent to hold onto his wicket, Madhya Pradesh bowlers concentrated on dismissing Baba Indrajith. Yet again, Ankit scalped Indrajith (39) in the 23rd over of the home side innings.
At close of play today, Mukund was batting on 37 and skipper Ramaswamy Prasanna was giving him company on 16.
Tamil Nadu now trail by 320 runs with six wickets remaining in their first innings.
Brief Scores:
Madhya Pradesh 1st Innings: 432 all out in 142.4 (Jalaj Saxena 144, Devendra Bundela 104; Malolan Rengarajan 7/135).
Tamil Nadu 1st Innings: 112 for 4 in 37 overs (Baba Indrajit 39, Abhinav Mukund batting 37; Ankit Sharma 4/60).
