Dindigul, Dec 18 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh hit back strongly to bundle out Tamil Nadu for 96 and reached 133 for 7 in the second innings to seize the advantage at stumps on day two the Ranji Trophy Group 'B' match here on Wednesday.

At stumps, Himachal extended the lead to 195 runs.

Resuming at the overnight 8 for no loss, the Tamil Nadu innings last only 46 overs as the Himachal bowlers struck at regular intervals.

Vaibhav Arora (3/21) was the best bowler for HP, while RIshi Dhawan (2/30), Mayank Dagar (2/17) and A P Vashist (2/22) chipped in with wickets.

Test star Ravichandran Ashwin (24) was the top-scorer with his 60-ball knock, including two boundaries, while none of the other batsmen showed the necessary application to pile up a big total and put the pressure on the visiting team.

The experienced Abhinav Mukund on whom a lot depended in the absence of Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay and Vijay Shankar, was the first to go today, caught by Ankit Kalsi of Vaibhav Arora for 6.

Tamil Nadu was tottering at 43 for 6 before Ashwin and J Kousik (21) came up with a rescue act briefly. The dismissal of the latter sparked a collapse again as four wickets went down for 23 runs.

Left-arm pacer T Natarajan (2/11) struck an early blow getting P S Khanduri for a duck in the first over. However, Prashanth Chopra (23) and S L Verma (36) batted resolutely to keep the host bowlers at bay.

Tamil Nadu hit back with three wickets before Rishi Dhawan (27 batting) made sure Himachal didn't allow the advantage slip away completely.

Ashwin and R Sai Kishore took two wickets each.

Brief scores: Himachal Pradesh 158 all out in 71.4 overs (A Vashist 35, Mayank Dagar 33, Sumeet Varma 30; R Ashwin 5/65, R Sai Kishore 3/22) and 133 for 7 in 46 overs (S L Verma 36, Rishi Dhawan 27 batting, T Natarajan 2/11) vs Tamil Nadu 96 all out (R Ashwin 24, J Kousik 21, Vaibhav Arora 3/21).

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