The stone-dead silence in Tamil Nadu’s dressing room in contrast to the jubilation in Uttar Pradesh summed up everything about where these teams stand as the Ranji Trophy takes a pause for white-ball tournaments.

On a comatose pitch, the fifth round fixture in Coimbatore had come down to first-innings lead. Having put on 455 on board, Tamil Nadu had Uttar Pradesh at 191/5 then at 348/7 and 407/8. And UP were on 443, when Rinku Singh, who carried his team on his shoulders with career-best 176, fell, leaving the last pair needing 13 runs for the lead. A dropped catch, couple of missed chances for run-out all were on display, summarising the season TN have had as the last pair of Aaqib Khan and Kunal Tyagi overhauled the hosts’ total to get three crucial points and give an outside chance o

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