Crist’s 6 for 31 puts Tamil Nadu in command

Stumps Tamil Nadu 111 for 4 (Vijay 34, Karthik 31, Aravind 2-14) lead Karnataka by 23 runsScorecard

The Tamil Nadu seam attack wiped out Karnataka for 88, their joint second-lowest total in the Ranji Trophy in the last ten years, on a green Visakhapatnam pitch. After Tamil Nadu won a crucial toss, seamer Aswin Crist, playing his 22nd first-class game, led the way with career-best returns for 6 for 31. T Natarajan and K Vignesh, who had played only seven games each prior to this match, lent supporting hands to extend the resurgence of the Tamil Nadu attack.

That a few Karnataka batsmen attempted injudicious shots also contributed to them crashing in only 37.1 overs. In reply, Tamil Nadu secured the first-innings advantage and closed the first day at 111 for 4.

Natarajan struck with his third ball – a cunning outswinger that opened up KL Rahul. B Aparajith snapped up a low catch at second slip. Kaunain Abbas repeatedly played and missed full balls outside off, before he threw his bat at a wide delivery from Crist and found Vijay Shankar at gully.

After bowling a probing first spell, 5-3-5-1, Natarajan returned to remove opener R Samarth, who had hung on for 70 minutes, and Abhimanyu Mithun, who was promoted to No.5. Natarajan set Mithun up with full balls, and then surprising him with a …

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