The Baba brothers — Indrajith and Aparajith — are hard to tell apart except when they have a bat in hand. Out in the middle, they have very different styles of batting and in the way they approach their innings.
On Thursday, for the first time, they made centuries in the same match for Tamil Nadu in their inimitable styles and put their team in a strong position of 308 for four against Chhattisgarh on day one of the Elite Group H Ranji Trophy encounter here at the Nehru Stadium.
Rapid scoring
The duo added 206 runs for the third-wicket with Indrajith (127, 141b, 21x4) continuing from where he left off in the match against Delhi (117), scoring at a rapid rate and going for his shots while Aparajith remained unbeaten on 101 (197b, 8x4, 2x6) accumulating runs at his own pace.
Electing to bat, opener Kaushik Gandhi went after left-arm spinner Sumit Ruikar hitting him for two sixes and two fours before he was run out due to a mix up with fellow-opener L. Suryapprakash.
In the first over after lunch, left-arm spinner Ajay Mandal, who was the man-of-the-match in the last game, had Suryapprakash caught at first slip. It was then that Indrajith joined his brother and took the game away from the opposition.
Regarded as one of the best players of spin in domestic cricket in the country, Indrajith attacked the two left-arm spinners with ease, be it using his late-cut behind point, or driving them with authority through covers and also found considerable success whipping them through mid-wicket playing against the turn.
Flurry of boundaries
The Chhattisgarh medium-pacers tried to bowl wide outside his off-stump to stop his flicks but Indrajith was more than happy to drive and at times bludgeon them through covers. He was particularly severe on Shashank Singh slamming him for seven boundaries. The last three came in the final over before tea as Indrajith raced from 88 to 100 with consecutive boundaries to bring up a ton in just 106 balls.
Aparajith started his innings with a six before and played some neatly timed cover drives on his way to his 10th First-Class ton.
The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: M. Kaushik Gandhi run out 27, L. Suryapprakash c Bhatia b Mandal 21, B. Aparajith (batting) 101, B. Indrajith b Mandal 127, Vijay Shankar c Ashutosh b Ruikar 0, M. Shahrukh Khan (batting) 28; Extras (b-4): 4; Total (for four wkts. in 86 overs): 308.
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-59, 3-265, 4-266.
Chhattisgarh bowling: Kiran 10-0-28-0, Veer Pratap 11-3-34-0, Ruikar 30-2-115-1, Mandal 26-5-82-2, Shashank 8-3-31-0, Ashutosh 1-0-14-0.
Toss: Tamil Nadu.
