Karnataka pay obeissance to Laxman on Ramanavami

Laxman, whose previous best was an unbeaten 301 against Bihar at Jamshedpur in 1997-98, was unbeaten on 346 at close in Hyderabad’s match-winning total of 663 for six.

He drove off either foot with remarkable timing and used the lofted drives even against the medium-pacers.

Venkatesh Prasad’s captaincy was truly baffling. He must have realised very early on the first day itself that his decision to field first was wrong. But rather than control the damage, he kept attacking fields almost throughout the innings. If on the first day the champions conceded 344 runs, Wednesday was just as bad. Attacking fields were retained throughout the innings and this left huge gaps in the outfield. Thus every now and then the batsmen helped themselves to boundaries. The scoring rate always hovered around the four runs per over mark despite the batsmen not really going on the offensive. A total of 83 boundaries and two sixes — more than 50 per cent of the total — tells its own tale.

Resuming at 344 for two, Hyderabad lost skipper Mohammed Azharuddin pretty early. Prasad had him edging to second slip for 123 (291 mins, 204 balls, 18 fours). Azharuddin and Laxman added 288 for the third wicket in just 291 minutes.

A little later, Laxman (194) made only his second mistake of the innings when he edged Mansoor Ali Khan to Vijay Bharadwaj at slip. But the latter once again spilt the catch. Laxman was tired by the end of the day. But his innings (346 batting; 723 mins, 540 balls, 50 fours, 2 sixes) has more or less buried Karnataka.

SCOREBOARD

Hyderabad (1st innings): Daniel Manohar c Thilak b Prasad 39, Nandakishore c Bharadwaj b Prasad 12, VVS Laxman batting 346, Mohammed Azharuddin c Bharadwaj b Prasad 123, Pratap b Joshi 45, Pratap Satwalkar c Thilak b Akhil 37, Riaz Sheikh c Arunkumar b Ganesh 15, Fiaz Ahmed batting 7. Extras: (b6, lb4, w6, nb24) 40. Total (for 6 in 180 overs; 764 mins) 663
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-91, 3-379, 4-504, 5-590, 6-636

Bowling: Prasad 39-10-104-3, Ganesh 36-4-147-1 (nb13), Mansur Ali Khan 25-4-104-0 (nb8, w5), Joshi 51-6-195-1, Akhil 14-1-64-1 (w1), Bharadwaj 11-1-29-0 (nb3), A Vijay 4-0-10-0