Hosts ahead despite Railways fightback
A perfect breakfast will give one the energy and drive for the rigours of the entire day. In Monday’s morning session, Hyderabad feasted upon the ineptitude of the Railways — resuming from the overnight score of 145/2 — to bowl them out for 213, thus taking a vital 124-run first innings lead in their Ranji Trophy Group ‘A’ match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here.
Though, Railways fought their way back into the game courtesy their spinners, the hosts — who ended Day Three at 130 for 6 — would take comfort from an overnight lead of 254.
SHINDE SCALPS FIVE Earlier in the day, rightarm off-spinner Amol Shinde — who was playing his first match of the current season — scalped five wickets as the hosts derailed the Railways chase by taking eight wickets in first session.
But due credit should be given to Ashish Reddy, for he triggered the collapse, sending back the veteran Sanjay Bangar back to the pavilion just four balls after the start. Bangar, whose shot selection on Day Two was impeccable, was dragged onto the frontfoot to edge the ball into the safe hands of wicketkeeper K. Sumanth.
The medium-pacer then also scalped Nitin Bhille, leaving two new batsmen in the middle. From there on, Shinde took over — Mahesh Rawat, M. Suresh, P.M. Madkaikar and Murali Kartik fell prey to the 27-year-old, with just 38 runs added to the scoreboard.
With Shinde in such form, one could be forgiven for forgetting Pragyan Ojha, who did not take the field after sustaining an ankle injury.
Akash Bhandari too then got into the action, trapping Karan Sharma legbefore-wicket before Shinde completed his fivefor. Hardik Rathod was outwitted with just five min- utes for lunch and substitute Parth Jhala made no mistake at the silly point.
VISITORS HIT BACK However, Hyderabad’s second innings got off to a disastrous start. Opening the bowling attack, Railways medium pacer Anureet Singh knocked back K. Sumanth’s middle stump off just the second ball of the over.
Skipper Akshath Reddy and G.H. Vihari then scripted a cautious 51-run partnership, broken when Vihari was caught-andbowled by Karan Sharma. SCOREBOARD: Hyderabad: First innings: 337 Second innings: K. Sumanth b Anureet Singh 0, Akshath Reddy c Anureet b Sharma 27, G.H. Vihari c&b Sharma 23, B. Sandeep c Bangar b Kartik 33, Ahmed Quadri c Rawat b Sharma 10, Sandeep Rajan batting 14, Ashish Reddy 2, Akash Bhandari batting 16 Total: 130/6 in 56 overs. Extras: 5 (b 2, lb 1, w 1, nb 1) FoW: 1-0, 2-51, 3-64, 4-93, 5102, 6-106 Bowling: Anureet Singh 7-4-71, Hardik Rathod 5-0-10-1, Murali kartik 18-7-33-2, Sanjay Bangar 3.3-1-9-0, Karan Sharma 17-2-59-3, Shivakanth Shukla 5.3-1-9-0 Railways (overnight 145/2): Shivakant Shukla lbw Ojha 25, Amit Paunikar c Rajan b Ojha 41, Nitin Bhille c Sandeep b Ashish 36, Sanjay Bangar c Sumanth b Ashish 43, M. Suresh c Akshath b Shinde 11, Rawat lbw Shinde 13, P.M. Madkaikar c Ashish b Shinde 25, Karan Sharma lbw Bhandari 6, Murali Kartik lbw Shinde 1, Anureet Singh not out 4, Hardik Rathod c sub (P. Jhala) b Shinde 1 Total: 213 in 92.4 overs. Extras: 8 (b 5, w 1, nb 2) FoW: 1-51, 270, 3-146, 4-157, 5-170, 6-181, 7207, 8-208, 9-208, 10-213 Bowling: Anwar Ahmed Khan 12-2-41-0, Ashish Reddy 16-442-2, Pragyan Ojha 13-6-17-2, Amol Shinde 36.4-12-78-5, Akash Bhandari 15-3-30-1.