Hyderabad headed for another disaster

Hyderabad: Hyderabad faces the ignominy of yet another embarrassment in ts backyard given the pathetic situation they are in their Rani Trophy Group ‘C’ match against Jharkhand at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here on Thursday.

After being bundled out for 145 in its first innings, the host was precariously placed at 169 runs at stumps on the third day. They need to score another 74 runs to avoid an innings in their season ender.

Earlier in the day, the visitors, resuming at 355 for six wickets, they declared their first innings closed after adding 22 to end at 358 for the loss of eight wickets. As things appear Jharkhand has made a virtual case for elevation.

With just one point behind Himachal Pradesh, before this match begain, they will more or less themselves of a quarterfinal berth should they get the bonus point, which should be there sole immediate focus.

Overnight batsman Saurabh Tiwary remained unbeaten on 209 from 283 balls with 27 fours and four sixes. He was the crease for 392 minutes. At the end of the day B Anirudh(16) was in the crease with CV Milind(1).

Except B Sandeep no other batsman offered any resistance. He played a painstaking knock that lasted 212 minutes and was worth 58 runs. He added 69 runs for the third wicket with GH Vihari (32) and 33 with Himalay Agarwal (19). Rahul Shukla and Shabhaz Nadeem took two wickets each.

Brief scores: Hyderabad 145 & 169 for 6 (B Sandeep 58, GH Vihari 32, Rahul Shukla 2/28, Shahbaz Nadeem 2/65) vs Jharkhand 358 for 8 decl( Saurabh Tiwary 209no, Kaushal Singh 54, Ishank Jaggi 48, Ravi Kiran 3/94, CV Milind 3/77).

By Subhash Chandra