Left-arm spinner A. Lalith Mohan overcame a disappointing start to finish off with an impressive three-wicket burst in his comeback Ranji game to put Hyderabad back in control against Jharkhand on the third day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Plate Group ‘B' match here on Saturday.
Earlier, Hyderabad resuming at 373 for seven, again disappointed with its slow batting and eventually finished at 416 thanks to Ahmed Quadri's second Ranji century in his 19th match (105, 204 balls, 12x4).
The morning session was dominated by a wonderful spell from fast bowler Shiv Shankar Rao who picked up the last three wickets (all bowled), including Quadri's with a huge inswinger.
Early breakthrough
Later, Hyderabad's spinners failed to put the opposition under pressure despite the early breakthrough provided by the tall, left-arm medium-pacer and debutant Anwar Ahmed. His diagonal line had Rameez Nemat edging to captain Ravi Teja in the slips to leave Jharkhand nine for one.
Then an 86-run stand between Manish Vardhan (42, 119 balls, 5x4) and Ishank Jaggi (81, 162 balls, 14x4) put the host on the defensive. Off-spinner Quadri broke the partnership when he deceived Manish in flight and snapped up the return catch.
When Jaggi and captain Surabh Tiwary were at the crease and executing some pleasing strokes on either side of the wicket, Mohan and debutant left-arm spinner Mehdi Hasan looked ineffective, either bowling short and wide or over-pitching.
Hasan seemed to be content in pushing the ball through. Yet, he could still have taken his maiden Ranji wicket but failed to latch on to a sharp return chance off Jaggi when he was on 15.
Lalith Mohan's three
Just when Jharkhand looked like gaining control, Lalith Mohan first removed Tiwary cleaning him up with one that straightened and then bowled a well-set Jaggi.
Soon, Lalith Mohan picked up his third wicket to remove Kumar Deborat and reduce Jharkhand to 177 for five from 162 for two.
Then, the flamboyance of southpaw Aamir Hashmi (33 batting, 62 balls, 4x4, 2x6) kept up Jharkhand's hopes of achieving its first objective — to avoid the follow-on — alive.
Hyderabad's catching was sloppy, with quite a few in the close-in cordon going down, and so was the wicket-keeping by Ibrahim Khaleel.
The scores: Hyderabad — 1st innings: P. Akshath Reddy (run out) 61, D. B. Ravi Teja lbw b S.S. Rao 73, G.H. Vihari c Nemat bt R. Mishra 24, B. Sandeep b S. Nadeem 61, N. Arjun Yadav c S.P. Gautam b Y. Krishnatry 43, A. Quadri b S.S. Rao 105, I. Khaleel st S.P. Gautam b S. Nadeem 11, Mehdi Hasan c Jaggi b S. Nadeem 14, Kaneshkk Naidu b S.S. Rao 15, A. Lalith Mohan (not out) 0, A. Ahmed Khan b S.S. Rao 0; Extras (b-7, lb-1, w-1): 9; Total (in 156.5 overs): 416.
Fall of wickets: 1-111, 2-146, 3-170, 4-258, 5-295, 6-334, 7-370, 8-409, 9-416.
Jharkhand bowling: Krishnatry 31-8-88-1, S.S. Rao 28.5-5-69-4, Nadeem 60-13-140-3, Rahul 32-6-86-1, Manish 1-0-3-0, Tiwary 4-1-22-0.
Jharkhand — 1st innings: M. Vardhan c & b Quadri 42, R. Nemat c Ravi Teja b Ahmed Khan 1, I. Jaggi b Lalith Mohan 81, S. Tiwary b Lalith Mohan 23, K. Deobrat c Vihari b Lalith Mohan 8, A. Hashmi (batting) 33, S.P. Gautam (batting) 1; Extras (b-8, lb-2): 10; Total (for five wickets in 79 overs): 199.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-95, 3-153, 4-154, 5-177.
Hyderabad bowling: Anwar 9-1-30-1, Kaneshkk 12-6-22-0, Mehdi Hasan 19-2-58-0, Quadri 13-3-28-1, Lalith Mohan 20-4-45-3, Ravi Teja 6-2-6-0.
