: Gujarat restricted Hyderabad to 291 for four on day three of its Ranji trophy Group A fifth round match at the Sardar Patel Stadium on Monday, with B. Sandeep on 61 and S.A. Quadri on 33 at stumps.
Confronted by an attacking field that mostly packed the off-side, overnight batsmen M.A. Khader and Akshath Reddy picked the gaps till the former played into the hands of wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel off Bhavesh Baria.
Akshath Reddy, who held his ground the evening before and seemed to have found his rhythm this morning fell prey to the guiles of a carefully set field, minutes before lunch.
Plundering 17 boundaries off the Gujarat attack that he had sized up fairly well, the Hyderabad skipper played across an angled Rush Kalaria delivery, lobbing a straight-forward catch to Samit Gohel, stationed at short mid-wicket.
Crucial partnership
Hanuma Vihari worked his way through the off-side and added 99 runs with Sandeep in a three and a half-hour association for the fourth wicket.
The frequent field changes for the left-right pair suited the duo just fine, as they picked up singles when boundaries were hard to come by, a sensible enough approach.
Only that Vihari tended to flirt outside the off stump once too often. An appreciative crowd cheered the under-19 World Cup wnning member as he swatted the ball past point or cut through the slips. Shortly before tea, the new ball was taken.
Thereafter, after shouldering arms to quite a few of Krushang Patel’s skimmers, Vihari found himself prodding one almost involuntarily, as substitute stumper Smit Patel gratefully accepted the offering.
Sandeep soldiered on meanwhile, with Syed Ahmed Quadri for company. Preserving wickets had become paramount and the twosome got dourly wedded to the task, spurning temptations that had plagued their predecessors.
The scores:
Gujarat — 1st innings : 566.
Hyderabad — 1st innings : K. Sumanth c (wk) Parthiv b Dhruv 18, Akshath Reddy c Gohel b Kalaria 79, M.A. Khader c (wk) Parthiv b Bhavesh 17, G.H. Vihari c (sub wk) Smit b Krushang 79, B. Sandeep batting 61, S.A. Quadri batting 33; Extras (nb-3, w-1): 4; Total (for four wkts. in 104 overs): 291.
Fall of wickets : 1-34, 2-81, 3-141, 4-240.
Gujarat bowling : R. Kalaria 24-11-29-1, Krushang 16-3-44-1, Bhavesh B. 17-3-50-1, Rakesh D. 30-7-87-1, Krunal P. 13-0-66-0, Rujul Bhatt 3-2-9-0, Manprit J. 1-0-6-0.
