Chennai, Jan 21: Tamil Nadu found themselves stuttering in the face of Rajasthan’s huge first-innings score of 621 on Day 3 of the 2011-12 Ranji Trophy final. After opener Vineet Saxena’s maiden double-ton had taken Rajasthan to a mammoth first-innings score, Tamil Nadu were reduced to 66 for three by their opponents in the final session of the day’s play.

The day began with the defending champions resuming from their overnight score of 404 for the loss of two wickets with Vineet Saxena (207*) and Robin Bist (16*) taking charge for Rajasthan. Bist (57) eventually became the fourth Rajasthan batsman to post a 50-plus score and shared a 123-run stand with Saxena before he was caught by K Vasudevdas off Sunny Gupta’s bowling with the score at 485.

Saxena, however, benefitted from two dropped catches – first on 215 and then on 252 – to remain unbeaten on 255 when play broke for lunch. Rajathan were 506 for the loss of three wickets at this stage.

The second over of the post-lunch session finally saw Saxena’s marathon innings come to an end when he was bowled by left-arm orthodox spinner Aushik Srinivas for 257. Saxena’s dismissal gave Tamil Nadu the opening they wanted and their bowlers combined to take the last six Rajasthan wickets while conceding just 112 runs to eventually dismiss the visitors for 621. The only highlight of Rajasthan’s lower-order batting was an innings of 45 (off 54 balls) from No. 9 batsman Rituraj Singh; this was the tailender’s highest first-class score.

Aushik Srinivas was the pick of TN’s bowlers with four wickets to his credit while Sunny Gupta and J Kaushil finished with three wickets each.

Rituraj Singh then continued his good showing when he trapped Abhinav Mukund (0) and S Badrinath (6) lbw to leave the hosts wobbling at 24 for the loss of three in their first innings. Fellow pacer Pankaj Singh chipped in with the wicket of Murali Vijay (15) between Rituraj’s two wickets to make it a disappointing start for Tamil Nadu. Dinesh Karthik (13*) and K Vasudevdas (25*) then took TN to 66 for three when stumps were called on Day 3.

The hosts now trail Rajasthan by 555 runs with seven wickets remaining in their first innings.

Scorecard