Diving effort: Vivek’s return to the crease after retiring hurt did not last long as he holed out to Radhakrishnan in the slip cordon.
| Photo Credit: E. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN
S. Rithik Easwaran got to an unbeaten 53 (48b, 4×4, 2×6) for TNCA President’s XI to declare its second innings on 227 for four and set a 332-run target for Railways on the last day of a drawn Group-B match in the second round of the Buchi Babu Memorial All India invitational cricket tournament at the Salem Cricket Foundation ground here on Saturday.
The southpaw remarkably slog-swept left-arm spinner Raj Chaudhary for back-to-back sixes to square leg.
Railways lost seven wickets in its chase. After opener Vivek Singh retired hurt with a foot injury in the fourth over, fellow opener Pratham Singh (11) had his front-foot defence breached by pacer M. Mohammed. In the next over, left-arm spinner M. Siddharth (two for 23) trapped Kush Marathe (10) in front of the wicket.
Mohammad Saif (25), then, skied S. Mohamed Ali’s off-spin to Gurjapneet Singh at mid-off. Gurjapneet, with his left-arm medium-pace, had Upendra Yadav (42) inside-edge onto the stumps.
Thereafter, leg-spinner Jhathavedh Subramanyan picked up two wickets (two for 93) to spark the hope of a Railways collapse. He had Sahaib Yuvraj (47) play on the backfoot and edge an especially bouncy delivery to a diving Radhakrishnan at slip.
Vivek (10), who returned to bat, edged his wild on-side hoick for Radhakrishnan to take a diving catch again at slip.
Attacking with no outfielder, Siddharth trapped Vishal Harsh (7) in front with an arm-ball. However, Ravi Singh’s unbeaten 65 (90b, 14×4) helped Railways salvage a draw.
TNCA’s 19-year-old Mohamed Ali was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match.
The scores (round two, day four): Group-B: TNCA President’s XI 459 & 227/4 decl. in 53 overs (S. Radhakrishnan 82, S. Rithik Easwaran 53 n.o.) drew with Railways 355 & 244/7 in 73 overs (Upendra Yadav 42, Sahaib Yuvraj 47, Ravi Singh 65 n.o.). TNCA President’s XI 3 (3), Railways 1 (7).