Struggling against pace and spin alike, Hyderabad played into Haryana’s hands and stared at defeat after the penultimate day of the four-day Ranji Trophy league match here on Saturday.
Trailing by 140 runs, Hyderabad was 102 for five in the second innings with its leading batsmen, including skipper S. Badrinath, back in the dressing room.
Medium-pacer Sanjay Pahal and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal struck twice after captain Mohit Sharma provided an early breakthrough.
On Sunday, Hyderabad needs another 38 runs to make Haryana bat again.
Earlier, Haryana resumed its first innings at 236 for four and folded at 341, with left-arm spinner Mehdi Hasan bagging a career-best six for 93. Chaitanya Bishnoi scored 73, dotted with 12 boundaries. His run-out triggered off a collapse with the remaining five wickets adding only 53 runs.
The fact that Hyderabad had not learnt from the first innings debacle was underlined by the manner in which opener Tanmay Agarwal tossed away his wicket by pulling into the waiting hands of long-leg off Mohit.
Opener Akshath Reddy took 37 deliveries to open his account, and had an ugly spat with Mohit. Match Referee Rajiv Seth took note of the incident and was awaiting the umpires’ report.
After Reddy and a more-assured B. Anirudh added 54 runs for the second wicket, disaster struck Hyderabad. From 67 for one, Hyderabad was 68 for four with Anirudh, Badrinath and Reddy falling in that order.
Chahal sent back Anirudh before Pahal got the other two big wickets. Of the lot, Badrinath lasted just five deliveries before offering a regulation catch to wicketkeeper Nitin Saini. B. Sandeep and K. Sumanth played for 24.4 overs to frustrate Haryana and looked like taking Hyderabad to stumps without further damage. But that was not to be.
The scores:Hyderabad —1st innings: 191.
Haryana — 1st innings: Nitin Saini b Hasan 61, Shubham Rohilla lbw b Siraj 60, Chaitanya Bishnoi run out 73, Himanshu Rana lbw b Hasan 22, Rajat Paliwal lbw b Siraj 18, Rohit Sharma c Sumanth b Siraj 31, Joginder Sharma b Hasan 11, Harshal Patel c Badrinath b Hasan 25, Yuzvendra Chahal c Sumanth b Hasan 0, Sanjay Pahal c Milind b Hasan 8, Mohit Sharma (not out) 0; Extras (b-18, lb-4): 22; Total (in 130.4 overs): 331.
Fall of wickets: 1-126, 2-138, 3-173, 4-211, 5-278, 6-297, 7-297, 8-307, 9-331.
Hyderabad bowling: Mehdi Hasan 40.4-11-93-6, C.V. Milind 26-6-70-0, Ravi Kiran 23-6-52-0, Mohammad Siraj 25-2-44-0, Vishal Sharma 15-2-44-0, B. Sandeep 1-1-0-0.
Hyderabad — 2nd innings: Tanmay Agarwal c Pahal b Mohit 13, Akshath Reddy lbw b Pahal 19, B. Anirudh c Rana b Chahal 33, S. Badrinath c Saini b Pahal 1, B. Sandeep lbw b Chahal 13, K. Sumanth (batting) 19; Extras (lb-2, nb-1, w-1): 4; Total (for five wickets in 46.3 overs): 102.
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-67, 3-68, 4-69, 5-102.
Haryana bowling: Patel 7-2-37-0, Mohit Sharma 7-4-11-1, Pahal 11-4-23-2, Chahal 13.2-6-15-2, Joginder Sharma 3-1-3-0, Paliwal 2-0-5-0, Bishnoi 3-1-6-0.
