R Ashwin starred for Tamil Nadu
Rajat Patidar missed out on a well-deserved double century by four runs, but helped Madhya Pradesh make 393 against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B Match on Friday.
Test spinner R Ashwin and paceman M Mohammed finished with four wickets each to help TN restrict Madhya Pradesh from posting a huge total.
The home team was zero for no loss in two overs at stumps on day two.
Resuming at the overnight score of 214 for 3, Patidar forged another useful partnership with Shubham Sharma (43) to put the team in a strong position.
However, things went awry after the exit of Sharma as they slid from 317 for 4 to 393 all out.
Shubham Sharma was snapped up by wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan off Rahil Shah's bowling following which Patidar and Yash Dubey (6) added 42 runs.
Patidar defied the Tamil Nadu bowlers like he did on Thursday.
He slammed 17 fours and a six in his 406-ball knock.
He fell caught behind off Mohammed's bowling.
Mohammed and Ashwin took over after the exit of Patidar to engineer a collapse.
Ashwin snapped the last three wickets to fall (Avesh Khan, Ishwar Pandey and Kuldeep Sen) to finish with 4 for 85 from 38.4 overs.
Mohammed ended with 4 for 98.
Tamil Nadu openers - Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund negotiated two overs from the MP bowlers before bad light ended play.
Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 393 in 157.4 overs (Rajat Patidar 196, Aryaman Vikram Birla 51, Naman Ojha 45, R Ashwin 4 for 85, M Mohammed 4 for 98) vs TN 0 for no loss.
At Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 495 for 6 declared in 164 overs (Sachin Baby 147, V A Jagadeesh 113 not out, Jalaj Saxena 58, Sanju Samson 53, Saketh 3 for 110) vs Hyderabad 1 for no loss in 1 over.
Milind Kumar's double ton keeps Sikkim in command
Sikkim rode on Milind Kumar's sensational 261 to inch closer to a big win over Manipur in their debut Ranji Trophy Plate group match on Friday.
Starting at overnight personal score of 202, the former Delhi batsman's marathon innings came to an end after an hour's play on the day after being trapped by Manipur captain Yashpal Singh with the team posting a huge 372.
In reply, Manipur were shot out for 79 in 28 overs with Gujarat recruit Ishwar Chaudhary claiming four for 37, while Bipul Sharma (3/17) accounting for three wickets.
Following on, Manipur showed restraint in their second essay as they were 132 for 2 with Lakhan Rawat (62 batting) and skipper Yashpal Singh (48 batting) at the crease.
However it's still a big ask for Manipur to avoid an innings defeat as they still needed 170 runs to make Sikkim bat again.
The Sikkim scorecard looked unusual as seven batsmen had single digit scores, three managed to get to double digits but Milind's knock, that accounted for more than 70 per cent of the runs, made all the difference.
Milind has been around since 2011 when he made his first-class debut for Delhi.
He had a dream debut, scoring 119 in the first innings against Haryana at the Roshanara Ground in Delhi.
However, over the course of seven years, Milind has only managed 29 first-class games, with a second century and six fifties to go with his maiden double.
At the Nagaland Cricket Stadium in Sovima, Karnataka import Arbar Kazi followed up his fine show with his off-spinners (4/20) with a unbeaten maiden double hundred to put Nagaland in sniffing distance of a win against Mizoram.
In reply to Mizoram's 106, Nagaland declared their first innings at 530 for 8 with Kazi sharing a 149-run partnership with Mughavi Wotsa (58).
Skipper Jonathan Rongsen and Imliwati Lemtur (50) also scored half-centuries.
(With PTI Inputs)
At close on day two, Mizoram were 16 for 2 in their second essay still trailing by 408 runs.
