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Hyderabad forces the issue

Principal Correspondent

— PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

COMING GOOD: Hyderabad’s M.P. Arjun, who dismissed Rajasthan’s Rajesh Bishnoi, is congratulated by teammates.

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad fought back remarkably well in the post-lunch session — thanks to Ashwin Yadav’s splendid spell of fast bowling — to grab the first innings lead against Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A’ match, which eventually ended in a draw at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday.

In the eighth over of the day, fast bowler M.P. Arjun bowled Rajesh Bishnoi (97, 294 minutes, 238 balls, 15x4) beating him with pace and swing. However, Hyderabad was thwarted by a defiant 103-run stand for the fifth wicket between Robin Bisht (136, 525 minutes, 374 balls, 17x4) and southpaw Vaibhav Deshpande (73 not out, 242 minutes, 167 balls, 6x4).

During this stand, the bowling looked very ordinary with the pitch playing true. That was also the phase when Bisht, once again, came up with some exquisite strokes — most notably, walking down the track to drive Yadav down the ground.

Looking comfortable

At lunch, Rajasthan was comfortably placed at 356 for four, with Bisht and Deshpande in total control.

But, an unwarranted burst of aggression from Bisht — he stepped out to play a lofted stroke off off-spinner Ahmed Quadri only to hole out to the deep in the 16th over after the break — gave Hyderabad a whiff of a chance.

That turned out to be the decisive moment for the home team. Yadav then got three for 10 in his six overs before tea, cutting off all escape routes for the Rajasthan. With Deshpande failing to farm the strike well enough, the last five wickets fell for just 23 runs.

Hyderabad was 33 for no loss in the ten inconsequential overs before close.

Hyderabad now has 10 points from four matches while Rajasthan has two.

The scores: Hyderabad — 1st innings: 553 for six declared.

Rajasthan — 1st innings: V. Saxena c Teja b Shoaib 13, G. Khoda lbw b Shoaib 40, Venugopala Rao c sub b Arjun 20, R. Bist c Lalith b Quadri 136, R. Bishnoi b Arjun 97, V. Deshpande (not out) 73, N. Doru lbw b Yadav 1, S. Mathur lbw b Yadav 2, Pankaj Singh b Yadav 0, G. Shailender lbw b Arjun 0, Gajendra Singh b Yadav 0, Extras (b-11, lb-7, nb-5) 23; Total (in 160.5 overs) 405.

Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-67, 3-93, 4-279, 5-382, 6-388, 7-396, 8-400, 9-404.

Hyderabad bowling: Shoaib 38-16-72-2, Arjun 29-5-62-3, Lalith 40-9-116-0, Yadav 27.5-5-67-4, Quadri 18-1-50-1, Suman 7-1-19-0, Teja 1-0-1-0.

Hyderabad — 2nd innings: T. Suman (not out) 14, R. Teja (not out) 17, Extras (b-1, nb-1) 2; Total (for no loss in 10 overs) 33.

Rajasthan bowling: Mathur 3-0-16-0, Pankaj 2-1-2-0, Shailender 3-1-7-0, Khoda 2-0-7-0.

At Valsad: Gujarat 350 & 259 for six (P.K. Panchal 48, N. Patel 45, P. Patel 71) drew with Delhi 314. Gujarat 3, Delhi 1.

At Bangalore: Baroda 169 & 285 (C. Williams 137, R. Solanki 66, S. Joshi six for 48) lost to Karnataka 395 & 60 without loss (R. Uthappa 44 not out). Karnataka 6, Baroda 0.

At Bhubaneshwar: Punjab 60 & 378 (K. Goel 58, U. Kaul 71, A. Kakkar 117, Gagandeep Singh 45 not out, D. Mohanty five for 72) lost to Orissa 352 & 87 for one. Orissa 5, Punjab 0.

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 643 drew with Mumbai 214 & 157 for seven. Saurashtra 3, Mumbai 1.

At Kanpur: Maharashtra 221 & 230 (K.M. Jadhav 65, D.V. Shilamkar 56) lost to Uttar Pradesh 315 & 140 for two (T. Srivatsav 65 not out, Parvinder Singh 60). Uttar Pradesh 5, Maharashtra 0.

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