Test discard Sadgopan Ramesh endured stiffling heat to craft a patient 82 as Tamil Nadu reached 252 for five against Delhi on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final at the Ferozshah Kotla ground in Delhi on Friday.
Ramesh, opening the innings after Tamil Nadu won the toss, stayed close to six hours at the crease and faced 244 balls during his knock, which contained 12 boundaries.
Besides Ramesh, former international Hemang Badani scored an attractive 48 not out.
This season's prolific scorer S Sriram and captain S Suresh failed to convert their good starts into big scores, falling for 33 and 35 respetively.
But it was the left-handed opening batsman who stole the limelight on day one of the match, as he kept his cool under the scorching sun and piled up his runs mostly through singles and twos.
He was associated in three fifty-plus partnerships during his knock, which provided the backbone of Tamil Nadu's innings, before mistiming a pull off medium-pacer Sanjay Gill to Amit Bhandari at mid-on in the 82nd over.
He added 65 runs for the second wicket with Sriram, 62 runs with Suresh for third and 68 runs with Badani for the fourth wicket.
For Delhi, spinner Rahul Sanghvi and Gill were the most successful bowlers, taking took two wickets apiece.
Ramesh had a life, when he was dropped on 37 by Sanghvi off Bhandari.
Earlier, opener Vidyut Sivramkrishnan gave Tamil Nadu a blazing start, scoring 27 runs off just 28 balls. He hit three boundaries and shared an opening stand of 36 with Ramesh.
Bhandari, the leading wicket-taker in this Ranji Trophy season with 40 scalps from seven matches, effected the breakthrough when he had Sivramkrishnan caught by N S Negi at deep fine leg.
Sriram, who has had an impressive Ranji season so far, failed to carry on the good work as he was snapped at short mid-on by Akash Chopra. His knock off 37 balls was laced with six beautifully executed boundaries.
Suresh laboured to compile his knock as he stayed at the crease for over two hours and faced 116 balls. However, a lapse in concentration cost him his wicket as he offered a catch to Bhandari off Sanghvi, who returned with figures of two for 26 off 10 overs.
S Sharath, who was impressive during his short stay at the crease, was unlucky to be dismissed for six, given leg before to a Gill delivery that pitched outside the leg stump line and brushed his thigh.
Delhi tried seven bowlers, including their star player Virender Sehwag, who returned to the side after doing national duty in a triangular tournament in Dhaka.
He, however, disappointed his fans as he failed to take a single wicket with his gentle off-spin in the 10 overs he bowled, giving away 27 runs.
Scoreboard
Tamil Nadu (1st innings):
S Vidyut c Negi b Bhandari 27
S Ramesh c Bhandari b Gill 82
S Sriram c Chopra b Sanghvi 33
S Suresh c Bhandari b Sanghvi 35
H Badani not out 48
S Sharath lbw Gill 6
S Saravanan not out 1
Extras (b2, lb6, w2, nb10) 20
Total (5 wickets, 90 overs) 252
Did not bat: P Raju, M Shrinivas, L Balaji, D Dhandapani.
Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-101, 3-163, 4-228, 5-244.
Bowling: Bhandari 19-5-50-1, Gill 17-5-44-2 (1w), Negi 9-3-36-0 (1w), Sarandeep Singh 20-4-52-0 (2nb), Sanghvi 12-3-26-2 (2nb), Sehwag 10-2-27-0 (6nb), Manhas 3-0-9-0.
