Hyderabad batsmen struggle

HYDERABAD, March 30: The Hyderabad batsmen never seem to learn from their past mistakes. Yet again the home side frittered away a good toss ...

HYDERABAD, March 30: The Hyderabad batsmen never seem to learn from their past mistakes. Yet again the home side frittered away a good toss to be placed poorly at 170 for six in 90 overs against Bengal on the opening day of the five-day Ranji Trophy cricket quarter-final match at the Gymkhana here today.

On a wicket which gave some help to the bowlers, the Hyderabad batsmen lacked the discipline to build a big score and thereby allowed the Bengal bowlers to take first day’s honours. Former Indian medium-pacer Subroto Banerjee (2-58) bowled splendidly. So too left-arm spinner Shiv Sagar Singh. The veteran left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee pegged away to a tight line and length and also took the wicket of a reckless Noel David who made a wild heave, only to be bowled.

With left-hander Santosh Yadav declared unfit, it was left to A Nandakishore (40 batting, 180m, 128b, 6×4) to stem the rot for Hyderabad. He walked in when the home side lost two quick wickets after lunch that of left-hander Daniel Manohar(44; 172m, 120bm 6×4) and Vanka Pratap (28; 91b, 96m, 4×4).

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The opener, who came lower down in the order after the Hyderabad think-tank decided to give one more chance to out-of-form Arvind Shetty, gave hope of a Hyderabad recovery alongwith skipper MV Sridhar. The fifth wicket pair had realised 57 runs between lunch and tea.

SCOREBOARD

Hyderabad (1st innings):

A Shetty c & b Charanjit Singh 9, D Manohar st Karim b Shiv Sagar Singh 44, T Ravikumar c Karim b Ajoy Verma 8, V Pratap c Lahiri b Banerjee 28, MV Sridhar c Lahiri b Banerjee 28, A Nandakishore batting 40, N David b Utpal Chatterjee 9, Y Singh batting 2. Extras (lb 2): 2. Total (for 6 wkts, 90 overs): 170.

Fall of wickets:

1-17, 2-38, 3-85, 4-89, 5-146, 6-157.

Bowling:Banerjee 22-5-58-2, C Singh 7-0-23-1, Chatterjee 29-15-29-1, Verma 12-3-24-1, S Singh 18-9-30-1, Gandhi 1-0-4-0, Gavaskar 1-1-0-0.