The partnership between Samson and Sijomon Joseph raised Kerala’s hopes of pulling off a draw.

On a track that was expected to assist spinners, it was left-arm pacer T. Natarajan who starred with his maiden First Class five-wicket haul to bowl Tamil Nadu to a 151-run win over Kerala at the M.A Chidambaram stadium here on Sunday.

Chasing 369 and resuming at 27 for one, Kerala dominated the opening session of the day thanks to some positive batting from nightwatchman Sijomon Joseph and Sanju Samson. The duo ensured the visitors went to lunch at 143 for two, with Kerala adding 116 runs in the session losing only opener Arun Karthick (33).

Samson, the wicket-keeper batsman, started by stepping out to Sai Kishore and finding the mid-off boundary before hitting both Rahil Shah and Sai Kishore for huge sixes.

Unafraid

Joseph too showed he had the technique to belong to the top order. The youngster was not afraid to use his feet against the spinners pocketing a couple of sixes.

Samson used the sweep shot to good effect and outscored his partner to get to his fifty before lunch.

He eventually strung together a 97-run partnership for the third wicket with Joseph, frustrating the home side.

The TN bowlers were a bit flat and were not helped by fumbles on the field — a missed stumping and a dropped catch (Joseph the lucky batsman on 13 and 27) — in the first session.

Post lunch, like in the first innings, Natarajan got the ball to reverse and delivered the perfect yorker to remove Joseph leg-before for a well-made 55. Within the next 15 minutes, Kerala lost three more wickets going from 157 for two to 160 for six and could never recover from there.

Mix-up

A mix-up between Samson and P. Rahul resulted in the latter getting run out before skipper Sachin Baby fell leg-before to another Natarajan yorker, while Sai Kishore trapped V.A. Jagadeesh leg-before.

Natarajan said, “in the morning session, once they got some quick runs, we got a bit down. During the lunch break, the coach and the captain made it clear, we lacked intensity and had to step up. Thankfully, in the second session, I was getting some reverse and the yorker I bowled worked out well.”

The four quick wickets restricted Samson, who managed only 25 runs in the second session.

TN bowlers also bowled a defensive line to him, with the left-arm spinners coming over the wicket and bowling into his pads.

In the final session, skipper Indrajith went aggressive with more than five fielders close to the bat as Aparajith accounted for Vishnu Vinod and Samson fell nine short off a century after top-edging a sweep to square-leg.

Natarajan then cleaned up the tail to finish with match figures of eight for 84.

The win helped TN clinch six points and also mark its first outright win in the Ranji Trophy since the quarterfinal win over Karnataka in the 2016-17 season.

Indrajith, who had his first win as captain, said, “I am very happy to win after last game’s loss because to come back from tough situations is what matters. That’s important if you want to be a good team.”

The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 268.

Kerala — 1st innings: 152.

Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: 252 for seven decl.

Kerala — 2nd innings: K.B. Arun Karthick c Jagadeesan b Sai Kishore 33, Jalaj Saxena c Indrajith b Natarajan 12, Sijomon Joseph lbw b Natarajan 55, Sanju Samson c Jagadeesan b Aparajith 91, P. Rahul (run out) 0, Sachin Baby lbw b Natarajan 0, V.A. Jagadeesh lbw b Sai Kishore 0, Vishnu Vinod c Shahrukh b Aparajith 14, Akshay Chandran (not out) 8, Basil Thampi c Indrajith b Natarajan 0, Sandeep Warrier lbw b Natarajan 0; Extras (w-1, lb-3): 4; Total (in 89 overs): 217.

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-60, 3-157, 4-159, 5-159, 6-160, 7-195, 8-210, 9-211.

Tamil Nadu bowling: Natarajan 20-5-41-5, Mohammed 9-3-18-0, Rahil Shah 23-4-68-0, Sai Kishore 24-5-51-2, Aparajith 13-5-36-2.

TN won by 151 runs.