Left handed all rounder S Sriram underlined his growing stature in Indian cricket on Monday. With a fighting unbeaten 112 he rescued Tamil Nadu from a poor start and helped the home team to post a very respectable score of 252 for four wickets at close of play on the first day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy tie against Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram stadium.

The full value of Sriram's innings should be seen against the background of Tamil Nadu being eleven for two at the end of the seventh over. Sriram himself came in when Ashish Kapoor was out for a duck to the first ball of the second over. He was caught at gully by Venkatpathi Raju off MF Ahmed. A little later, Anand George was leg before to NP Singh for four.

Sriram, who performed commendably as a member of the India A team which recently went to the West Indies, found an able partner in another left hander Hemang Badani. The two initiated the recovery process with a third wicket partnership of 91 runs in 30.5 overs. Badani dominated the stand with some fine strokes and when he was out for 52 off 93 balls he had hit five fours and a six. Sriram by this time was set for a long innings and he and Madanagopal consolidated the recovery by adding 119 runs for the fourth wicket off 35.1 overs. Madanagopal was then run out by Nandakishore for 55. The in form youngster faced 112 balls and hit seven fours.

Sriram, who was 30 at lunch and 63 at tea, turned on the heat in the last session. In the company of skipper Robin Singh, Sriram proceeded to his century with a series of thrilling strokes and by close had batted 344 minutes, faced 275 balls and hit ten fours. The manner in which he paced his innings was exemplary. Robin, content to let Sriram hold centre stage by stumps had faced 51 balls to score seven runs.

Orissa had the upper hand at the end of the second day of their East Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Bengal at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack on Sunday. Replying to Orissa's first innings score of 370, Bengal were 53 for three at close.

Orissa resumed at 219 for two and a century by P Mullick and half centuries by SS Raul (53) and P Jaichandra (64 not out) helped them to prolong their innings. Mullick and Raul added 131 runs for the third wicket off 54.5 overs and then Jaichandra and S Satpathy (18) increased the score by 54 runs during an eighth wicket association. Mullick faced 246 balls for his 108, hitting ten fours and a six. Laxmi Ratan Shukla was the most successful bowler taking six for 86 off 32 overs.

When Bengal batted, opening bowler A Barick quickly removed N Haldipur (15) and D Dasgupta (1) and then held the catch off Jaichandra's bowling to dismiss S Kalyani for 2, leaving Bengal in some trouble at stumps.

Valuable knocks by RVC Prasad (78) and IG Srinivas (85) helped Andhra to take the first innings lead over against Karnataka in their South Zone Ranji Trophy league match at Kakinada on Sunday. Replying to Karnataka's 248, Andhra were 308 for six at close of play on the second day.

The two batsmen came together when Andhra had lost four wickets for 83 but then proceeded to turn the innings around with a fifth wicket partnership of 144 runs off 34.2 overs. While Prasad faced 159 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes, the more aggressive Srinivas faced only 119 balls and hit 13 of them to the ropes. The innings was kept going by tailenders NM Khan (26) and YS Ranganath (26 not out). For Karnataka, Dodda Ganesh was the most successful bowler with four for 95 off 28 overs.

Earlier a fine 83 by opener Mithun Beerala helped Karnataka recover from a poor start to post a challenging total on the opening day. Karnataka lost three wickets for 48 but Beerala flayed tha attack for a breezy knock. He faced just 96 balls and hit 17 fours. After his departure, the innings was kept going by VST Naidu (32), SN Shiraguppi (43) and AR Yalvigi (37 not out). Ranganath was the pick of the Andhra bowlers, bagging five for 69 from 33.5 overs.

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