Badrinath hits 143 in TN's 421: K'taka struggling at 144 for 6

Chennai, Nov 24 (UNI) Captain Subramaniam Badrinath struck form to make an elegant 143, helping Tamil Nadu reach 421 and then the bowlers grabbed crucial wickets to leave Karnataka struggling at 144 for six at the close on the second day of their four-day Elite-A Ranji Trophy Cricket match here today.

After a dismal performance in the earlier two matches against Maharashtra and Mumbai and with Tamil Nadu having just a point in their kitty, Badrinath's sound batting performance has come at the right time.

Resuming at his overnight 93, Badrinath and Ramkumar, who made 65 (9 fours and a six), added 83 runs off 126 balls for the seventh wicket. Overnight not out, Gopinath (3) failed to add any run to his credit.

This was Badrinath's ninth century in Ranji Trophy and he was the ninth man out when Tamil Nadu were 407. He stayed at the crease for 421 minutes for his individual 143 off 304 balls which contained 14 fours and 2 sixes.

For Karnataka, Vinaykumar (3/74), Aiyappa (3/73), Sunil Joshi (3/103) shared the wickets.

In reply, Karnataka lost opener K B Pavan cheaply with 8 runs on board and Uthappa too failed miserably making 15. Facing Yeo Mahesh, Uthappa played forward defensively and ended up edging the ball to wicket keeper Gopinath.

With off-spinner Ramkumar scalping both C Raghu (6) and Sudhindra Shinde (45-9 fours), the visitors were in trouble. Shinde did create a stir as he steered the bowlers to point fence seven times for his first scoring runs before taking a single.

Captain Yere Goud (34-4 fours) and Tilak Naidu (36-6 four and a six) also made their exit. At close Akhil was batting with one.

UNI