da dobrowin： Tamil Nadu made a superb recovery on the opening day of their RanjiTrophy Super League Group C match against Orissa at the Barabatistadium in Cuttack on Saturday and symbolising this was a record lastwicket partnership of 137 runs off 34.3 overs
04-Mar-2000Tamil Nadu made a superb recovery on the opening day of their RanjiTrophy Super League Group C match against Orissa at the Barabatistadium in Cuttack on Saturday and symbolising this was a record lastwicket partnership of 137 runs off 34.3 overs between No 10 RajatBhatia and No 11 J Gokulakrishna.The two came together shortly before tea with Tamil Nadu in trouble at190 for nine. They took the score to 222 at tea and dominated thebowling in the last session. Both went boldly for their strokes. The20-year-old Bhatia was slightly more aggressive and hit 72 in 166minutes. He faced 93 balls and hit nine of them to the ropes. The27-year-old Gokulakrishna who remained unbeaten with 59 batted 147minutes. He faced 126 balls and hit five boundaries. Bhatia was outshortly before the scheduled close.The partnership is the fourth highest for the tenth wicket in the66-year-old national competition. It surpassed the previous best forthis wicket for Tamil Nadu, 130 between NJ Venkatesan and CRRangachari against Madhya Pradesh in 1951.Tamil Nadu made a poor start losing five wickets for 74. A sixthwicket partnership of 58 runs off 15 overs between skipper SridharanSarath (60) and Vasanth Saravanan (27) retreived the innings. Sarathplayed the sheet anchor role, batting 196 minutes, facing 115 ballsand hitting 12 fours. Coming in at 47 for three, he was ninth out at190. Wicketkeeper Reuben Paul chipped in with a valuable 22. Then camethe last wicket stand that boosted the Tamil Nadu total to327. Mohanty, A Barrick and Bipin Singh all took three wickets each.