Twenty-one-year-old Shamsher Yadav’s brilliant 104 (196b, 13x4, 1x6) helped Services take the battle for the first innings lead into the final day against Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy Group C match at Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy Ground (BTC) here on Tuesday.
Resuming at its overnight score of 77 for no loss, Services finished the day at 360 for nine in reply to Hyderabad’s 580 for nine declared.
It was a day which tested the skills of Hyderabad bowlers as the pitch continued to be a sporting one with only the odd ball taking off abruptly.
But unfortunately, Hyderabad bowlers were good only in brief spells — first in the morning when pacers Ravi Kiran and Md Siraj provided the early breakthroughs.
Responsible battingFor Services, the first act of defiance came from wicket-keeper Nakul Verma (90, 178b, 13x4), who demonstrated that there was no devil in the pitch and circumspection was the key to success. He was unfortunate to miss out on a thoroughly deserving century, trapped leg before by leg-spinner Akash Bhandari.
Then, the technically-correct Shamsher held centre-stage and put on a useful 83-run stand with the free-stroking Rahul Singh (49, 75b, 9x4) for the fifth wicket.
After the tea break, though pacers Ravi Kiran and left-armer Chama Milind looked lively and picked a wicket apiece, they could not take out the lower-order. Ravi forced the dangerous-looking Rahul to snick behind and then Milind trapped Vikas Hathwala lbw.
Services had another useful partnership of 45 for the eighth wicket, thanks to Shamsher and the big-hitting and unorthodox Diwesh Pathania. Shamsher then completed a truly splendid century, his third of the season.
But, to the dismay of his teammates, Shamsher failed to resist the temptation for an ambitious stroke only to be caught at deep covers off Bhandari just before close of play.
The scores:
Hyderabad — 1st innings: 580 for nine decl.
Services — 1st innings: Aanshul Gupta c Sumanth b Ravi Kiran 10, Nakul Verma lbw b Bhandari 90, Ravi Chauhan b Md. Siraj 29, Azaruddin Bloch lbw b Ravi Kiran 10, Shamsher Yadav c Akshath b Bhandari 104, Rahul Singh c Sumanth b Ravi Kiran 49, Vikas Hathwala lbw b Milind 5, Vikas Yadav b Md. Siraj 6, Diwesh Pathania c Bhandari b Mehdi Hasan 25, Raushan Raj (batting) 0, Raj Bahadur Pal (batting) 0; Extras (nb-2, w-12, b-15, lb-3): 32; Total (for nine wkts. in 106 overs): 360.
Fall of wickets: 1-83, 2-86, 3-116, 4-200, 5-283, 6-295, 7-311, 8-355, 9-360.
Hyderabad bowling: Ravi Kiran 23-4-68-3, Chama Milind 18-2-73-1, Md Siraj 21-6-65-2, B. Anirudh 2-1-4-0, Mehdi Hasan 17-1-67-1, Akash Bhandari 24-6-62-2, B. Sandeep 1-0-3-0.
