Himachal Pradesh medium pacer Ashok Thakur came up with a career best six for 34 to help dismiss Tamil Nadu to 234 in their first innings on the opening day of the their four-day Super League Ranji Trophy match in Chennai on Sunday.
In reply, Himachal Pradesh were 10 for one at close.
Tamil Nadu captain S Badrinath rescued his team with a timely 111 and his stand of 97 for the third wicket with K Vasudevadas.
Opting to bat first, Tamil Nadu lost opener Ahbinav Mukund with five on board and then M Vijay and Badrinath added 43 for the second wicket before Vijay was bowled by Malik for 35.
Later, Badrinath and Gopinath put on 40 valuable runs for the sixth wicket and the former was the last man out after facing 206 balls (13 fours). Vasudevadas chipped in with 39 (4 fours) while four Tamil Nadu batsmen failed to open their accounts.
For Himachal, spinner Sarandeep Singh proved to be an able foil to Thakur claiming three for 77.
At close, Munish Gupta (3) was at the crease when play was stopped at the fall of captain Sandeep Sharma's wicket (7).
Scorecard:
Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
A Mukund b A Thakur 0
M Vijay b V Malik 35
S Badrinath c M Bisla b A Thakur 111
K Vasudevadas lbw A Thakur 39
R Srinivasan c M Bisla b A Thakur 0
S Suresh Kumar c S Sharma b S Singh 12
K Gopinath st M Bisla b S Singh 21
R Ramkumar c S Sharma b A Thakur 6
Y Mahesh c M Bisla b A Thakur 2
P Amarnath not out 0
Extras: (b-6, nb-2) 8
Total: (all out in 77 overs) 234
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-48, 3-145, 4-147, 5-166, 6-206, 7-221, 8-225, 9-226
Bowling: A Thakur 20-10-34-6, V Malik 14-4-29-1, J Mehta 7-0-43-0, S Singh 24-4-77-3, V Bhatia 11-1-37-0, S Sharma 1-0-8-0
Himachal Pradesh (1st innings):
M Gupta batting 3
S Sharma c Badrinath b Ramkumar 7
Extras: 0
Total: (for one wicket in 9.4 overs) 10
Fall of wicket: 1/10
Bowling: Y Mahesh 5-2-6-0, Amarnath 3-1-2-0, Ramkumar 1.4-0-2-1