Tamil Nadu thrashed Uttarakhand by an innings and 66 runs at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on October 20, 2026, with left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore claiming a hat-trick as he and fellow spinner S Ajith Ram bowled the visitors out twice inside three days. The result, in a Group D Elite fixture, marked a sharp response for Tamil Nadu after they had conceded the first-innings lead in their season opener against Rajasthan, and it instantly turned a round that had opened with frustration into one of the more emphatic results anywhere in this year’s competition.
How the Match Unfolded
Batting first, Tamil Nadu were anchored by Pradosh Ranjan Paul, whose patient 279-ball innings of 136 took the home side to a competitive 313. That total proved decisive once the spin duo of Sai Kishore and Ajith Ram got to work on a Chepauk surface that offered increasing turn as the match progressed, leaving Uttarakhand chasing the game from the first innings onward. Paul’s innings, built on tight shot selection rather than aggression, gave the bowlers a buffer large enough that Uttarakhand were under scoreboard pressure from the moment they came out to bat, a dynamic that compounded as the pitch deteriorated through day two and day three.
The Hat-Trick Moment
Sai Kishore struck in the 43rd over of Uttarakhand’s second innings, removing Lakshya Raichandani, Saurabh Rawat and Aditya Rawat in three consecutive deliveries to complete his hat-trick and seal the innings victory. It was the second hat-trick of his career, following an earlier one in T20 cricket, and made him only the eighth Tamil Nadu bowler in Ranji Trophy history to take three wickets in three balls. The dismissal of two players sharing a surname in the same over — Saurabh and Aditya Rawat — added an unusual footnote to an already rare feat, and the moment brought the Chepauk crowd to its feet as Tamil Nadu wrapped up the innings win well inside the allotted three days.
A Dominant Spin Combination
Across the match, Sai Kishore finished with figures of 10 for 74, including a second-innings spell of 6 for 34, while Ajith Ram took 4 for 33 in the same innings — meaning the pair accounted for all ten Uttarakhand wickets as the visitors were bowled out a second time without the home side needing to use a third bowler. The performance erased any lingering frustration from the round-one result and pushed Tamil Nadu’s bowling attack to the front of this season’s wicket-taking charts. Former India captain MS Dhoni, who continues to work informally with some Tamil Nadu bowlers, has previously been credited with advice on bowling angles that helped sharpen Sai Kishore’s control, a backstory that has added extra interest to the left-armer’s resurgence this season.
Context Within a Congested Ranji Season
The win came in the second round of the 2026-27 Ranji Trophy, a tournament that began October 11 and has already produced a mix of dominant innings victories and tighter contests across its Elite groups, with teams like Vidarbha, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat also picking up big wins earlier in the competition. For Tamil Nadu, bouncing back from a first-innings deficit to an outright victory inside three days signals a squad capable of grinding out points even after a slow start, a trait selectors will be watching closely with India A and domestic call-ups still months away. The seven points gained for an innings victory also matter disproportionately in a league table where teams are separated by fine margins across a long group stage, making round-two bonus points an early factor in which sides reach the knockout rounds.
What’s Next for Tamil Nadu
With seven points banked from the innings win, Tamil Nadu moves into round three with momentum and a spin attack that has already shown it can run through a batting lineup twice in the same match. How the team’s top order responds on surfaces that offer less turn will likely determine whether Sai Kishore and Ajith Ram’s heroics translate into a deep run through the Elite group stage, particularly once the fixture list moves away from the spin-friendly conditions at home and into venues that may favor seam bowling instead.
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