Opener Sridharan Sriram struck 78, giving Tamil Nadu the upper hand in their Ranji Trophy league match against Kerala at Chennai on Thursday.

Kerala scraped past the 200-run mark thanks to the efforts of K Rejith Kumar, who converted his overnight 40 into 69 valuable runs. He was the ninth wicket to fall, with the score on 221. Indian pace sensation Tinu Yohannan was the last wicket to fall, leaving Kerala dismissed for 223.

Tamil Nadu's openers started slowly, with Sriram playing in his usual vein and fellow opener Sadagoppan Ramesh trying to play himself back into form. The usually fluent Ramesh made an unbeaten 41 off 188 balls, striking no boundaries in his knock. He lost Sriram with the score on 118, but took Tamil Nadu through to the close of play with a considerable advantage. He was accompanied by Hemang Badani, who was unbeaten on 4.

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