An all-round performance by Dodda Ganesh, who scored 72 and took three wickets, put Plate A in command on the second day of the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket match against Elite A at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
Ganesh's knock and his 117-run fifth wicket partnership with Sunil Joshi (73) helped Plate A put up an imposing total of 373.
At the close of play, Elite A were tottering at 170 for six, with southpaw S Sriram waging a lone battle on 71 not out. Elite A need another 54 runs to avoid a follow-on.
In an inspired spell with the new ball, Ganesh picked three wickets in a span of 22 deliveries, trapping former Test player Sadagoppan Ramesh (9) leg before, former India opener Deep Dasgupta (15) caught brilliantly by Hrishikesh Kanitkar at mid-on and foxing skipper R S Sodhi (0), to reduce Elite A to 36 for three.
Rubbing salt to the wounds of the Elite, medium pacer Jobanputra trapped Debang Gandhi (0). The consolation for the Elite team was a 95-run fifth wicket stand between Sriram and Y Venugpala Rao (30, 113 min,65 b, 2x4, 1x6) in 26.5 overs.
Earlier, resuming at their overnight score of 234 for seven, Ganesh and Joshi took Elite A bowlers head-on. The duo played some good strokes with a flurry of boundaries and sixers before Ganesh was out. The duo, who had added 18 runs yesterday, added 99 more today.
The innings ended soon after Irfan Pathan and Sriram picked up four and two wickets respectively.
Plate B score 238 for seven
A chanceless 116 by opener Sujith Somasundar and a 40 not out by Srikumar Nair helped Plate B to recover to 238 for seven in the first innings after restricting Elite B to 350 on the second day of the Duleep trophy cricket championship match in Chennai on Thursday.
Somasundar, batting for 348 minutes, faced 226 balls and hit a six and 13 fours, while his Kerala statemate Srikumar struck one six and four fours after captain J Arun Kumar and Amay Khurasia had been dismissed at 12 and five respectively.
Vijay Bharadwaj (0) and D Bandela (18) fell rather cheaply to see Plate B struggling at 84 for four. Plate B were in further trouble after leggie Sairaj Bahutule (2-62) dismissed C Hemant Kumar (12) and A V Deshpande (23), with the score reading 152 for six.
However, Somasundar carried on his task despite the odds, adding 80 runs with Srikumar for the seventh wicket. His efforts finally ended when he fell to an Amit Uniyal delivery outside his leg stump, giving a catch to the wicketkeeper.
Earlier, resuming their first innings at the overnight score of 343 for eight, Elite B were all out for 350, just 15 minutes after the play began.
