Hyderabad wrested the initiative in the final session to leave Madhya Pradesh struggling at 44 for three in reply to its first innings score of 341 on the second day of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Saturday.
Thanks to lively spells from left-armer Abdul Khader who removed the dangerous Naman Ojha and Kaneshuk Naidu who sent back Satyam Choudhary — both falling to outswingers — Madhya Pradesh was off to dismal start.
In between, the gentle medium-pace of G.H. Vihari accounted for Jaffer Ali. V.V.S. Laxman preferred to be off the field to rest his back when MP batted.
Earlier, Laxman was engaged in another rearguard act and he did it in style scoring his 23rd century in his 53rd Ranji game. Incidentally, Laxman holds the record for scoring the maximum Ranji hundreds by a Hyderabad player.
Vihari misses out
Vihari failed to convert his good knock into a century when he snicked a delivery off Anand Rajan to slips. The rest of the batsmen did now show the desired application on an easy-paced wicket and failed to lend support to Laxman.
Laxman braved discomfort in his back which required his trainer to attend to him a couple of times. And, when he was finally given out — caught behind after shouldering arms to a wayward ball on the leg-stump — Laxman was stunned but like always walked back to the pavilion without any hint of dissent.
Fortunately for the home team, the last wicket pair of Khader and Vishal Sharma showed grit and character, adding 71 runs off 122 balls to help Hyderabad reach a far more respectable total which looked unlikely when it was 270 for nine.
The scores:
Hyderabad — 1st innings: P.A. Reddy c Ojha b Anand Rajan 2, D.B. Ravi Teja c Anand Singh b Pandey 2, G.H. Vihari c Anand Singh b Anand Rajan 81, V.V.S. Laxman c Ojha b Anand Rajan 120, N. Arjun Yadav c Ojha b Pandey 16, A. Quadri lbw b Pandey 4, I. Khaleel b Anand Rajan 1, Kaneshuk Naidu b Pandey 15, A. Lalith Mohan lbw b Ankit Sharma 13, Vishal Sharma c Ojha b Jalaj 37, M.A. Khader (not out) 35; Extras (b-1, lb-10, w-4): 15; Total (in 114.3 overs): 341.
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-22, 3-165, 4-203, 5-207, 6-219, 7-251, 8-251, 9-270.
Madhya Pradesh bowling: Pandey 33-5-88-4, Anand Rajan 26-6-64-4, Anand Singh 2-0-7-0, Amit 20-3-65-0, Ankit 21-2-61-1, Jalaj Saxena 11.3-0-43-1, Satyam 1-0-2-0.
Madhya Pradesh — 1st innings: N. Ojha c Khaleel b Khader 17, S. Choudhary c Khaleel b Kaneshuk 5, Jaffer Ali c Arjun b Vihari 2, D. Bundela (batting) 11, Udit Birla (batting) 6; Extras (lb-1, nb-1, w-1): 3; Total (for three wkts. in 22 overs): 44.
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-19, 3-35.
Hyderabad bowling: Khader 8-2-15-1, Kaneshuk 8-3-15-1, Vihari 5-2-11-1, Lalith 1-0-2-0.
Other scores (round two, day two):
Group ‘A’:
At Mohali: Bengal 326 in 108 overs (Wriddhiman Saha 98, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 62, Rahul Sharma four for 53) vs. Punjab 229 for one in 70 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 102 batting, Mayank Sidhana 107 batting).
At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 341 in 114.3 overs (G.H. Vihari 81, V.V.S. Laxman 120, Ishwar Pandey four for 88, Anand Rajan four for 64) vs. Madhya Pradesh 44 for three in 22 overs.
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 478 in 152 overs (Vineet Saxena 114, Hrishikesh Kanitkar 119, Dishant Yagnik 76 n.o., Dhawal Kulkarni three for 88) vs. Mumbai 76 for no loss in 28 overs (Aditya Tare 43 batting).
At Surat: Gujarat 600 for nine decl. in 165 overs (Smit Patel 61, Parthiv Patel 56, Bhargav Merai 44, Manpreet Juneja 159, Rujul Bhatt 160 n.o., Rakesh Dhurv 65, Ravindra Jadeja four for 125) vs. Saurashtra 42 for no loss in 12 overs..
Group ‘B’: At Delhi: Odisha 143 in 47.1 overs & seven for no loss in five overs vs. Delhi 331 in 105.4 overs (Mithun Manhas 161 n.o., Sumit Narwal 66, Basant Mohanty four for 81, Alok Mangaraj three for 63).
At Pune: Maharashtra 738 for five in 177 overs (Harshad Khadiwale 68, Sangram Atitkar 80, Kedar Jadhav 327, Ankit Bawne 78, Rohit Motwani 146 batting, Piyush Chawla three for 233) vs. Uttar Pradesh.
At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 538 for four decl. in 168 overs (Abhinav Mukund 51, K.B. Arun Karthick 50, B. Aparajith 112, S. Badrinath 72, K. Dinesh Karthik 154 n.o., R. Prasanna 74 n.o.) vs. Karnataka 26 for no loss in 10 overs.
At Vadodara: Vidarbha 264 in 101 overs (Shalabh Srivatsava 63, Hemang Badani 101 n.o., Murtuja Vahora three for 94, Firdaush Bhaja three for 50) vs. Baroda 192 for two in 75 overs (Aditya Waghmode 62, Abhimanyu Chauhan 58 batting).
Group ‘C’: At Porvorim: Jammu & Kashmir 338 in 151.3 overs (Parvez Rassol 171, Samiullah Beigh 57 n.o., Amogh Desai four for 24 ) vs. Goa 48 for no loss in 29 overs.
At Anantapur: Tripura 260 in 107 overs (S. Abbas Ali 103, T. Atchuta Rao three for 41) vs. Andhra 154 for no loss in 63 overs (D.B. Prasanth 80 batting, Hemant Watekar 57 batting).
At Jamshedpur: Assam 179 in 88.1 overs & 27 for two in 11.5 overs vs. Jharkhand 174 in 76.1 overs (Rameez Nemat 53, Arlen Konwar six for 67).
At Nadaun: Services 312 in 97.4 overs (Pratik Desai 61, Soomik Chatterjee 54, Anshul Gupta 54, Rajat Paliwal 52, Vikramjeet Malik three for 89, Rishi Dhawan three for 80) vs. Himachal Pradesh 252 for two in 80 overs (Aakash Chopra 65, Prashant Chopra 90, Paras Dogra 56 batting).
