Hyderabad still in the hunt

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 9. A captain's knock by Nandakishore (91) helped Hyderabad defeat Indian Bank by 83 runs and stay in contention for a berth in the knock-out phase of the Coromandel King Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup cricket tournament at the AOC Centre Grounds here on Sunday.

Batting first, Hyderabad was off to a solid start with openers Arvind Shetty (44, 65b, 2x4) and Nandakishore (91, 111b, 5x4, 1x6) putting on 110 in 22.2 overs. The two displayed the right technique and temperament and play most of their strokes through the line. They presented a picture of confidence both in defence or aggression.

Nandakishore missed a thoroughly deserving century when he misread a straighter one from left-arm spinner Chakradhara Rao to be trapped leg before. Later Anirudh Singh (61, 66b, 4x4) too enjoyed his stint in the middle with some delightful strokes, particularly square of the wicket.

Placed comfortably at 200 for two in 36 overs Hyderabad was all set to post a target over the 300 mark. Though the odd ball was stopping a bit, demanding circumspection and better stroke selection, the wicket was still good enough for the home team to pile up a huge score. But that was not to be.

It was surprised by the guiles of stocky off-spinner Shyam Sunder who, bowling for the first time in this edition, picked up four for 26 in the slog overs to restrict Hyderabad to 275 for eight in 50 overs.

The first of his victims was Anirudh who failed to check his intended drive and gave a simple return catch. Later Vanka Pratap was bowled going for an ambitious stroke and the job of polishing off the tail was very easy.

Indian Bank did remarkably well to recover from a bad start when it lost its opener M.P. Sorab bowled all ends up by one that came back from off-stump off left-arm, medium-pacer Md. Ghouse Baba. Soon C.K. Suresh (19) was gobbled up by Vinay Kumar at covers off another left-armer Vishnuvardhan.

Opener K. Srinath (76, 97b, 6x4) along with Shyam Sunder (41, 56b, 5x4) stemmed the rot. The duo put on 83 runs in a stand which saw all the Hyderabadi bowlers looking pretty ordinary and clueless. That even Nandakishore had to roll his arm over was a fair indication of the duo's domination.

The way the two garnered runs with ease, through a judicious blend of attacking strokes and wonderful placements to take sharp singles, it looked as if Indian Bank would just pull off a surprise. But Shyam Sunder's dismissal opened the floodgates. His mistimed sweep off off-spinner J. Shivaji Yadav was taken by wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel. In the same over Shivaji Yadav took a brilliant diving catch to his right to send back N.S. Kumaraguru (0).

After this double blow the wind went out of the Indian Bank team and it never really looked to be in the race despite Srinath waging a lone battle.

Young left-arm spinner, Indersekhar Reddy (four for 33), wrapped up the tail without any fuss. He tossed the ball up without fear of being hit and constantly changed the line of attack from leg- and-middle to off to keep the batsmen guessing. In between Ghouse Baba chipped in with the vital wicket of Srinath, who was induced to play a lose shot and give a simple catch to mid-off. Indersekhar Reddy, who had a six-wicket haul in this event earlier, snapped up the last man when Sujay Parul holed out to Vishnuvardhan.

The scores: Hyderabad 275 for eight in 50 overs (Arvind Shetty 44, Nandakishore 91, G. Shyam Sunder four for 26) bt Indian Bank 192 in 41.4 overs (K. Srinath 76, G. Shyam Sunder 41, Indersekhar Reddy four for 33, Shivaji Yadav three for 42).

At Gymkhana: Canara Bank 228 in 47.4 overs (B. Rajasekhar 37, K. Sriram 44, Raghu 44, Deepak Chougule 58, Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan three for 52) lost to India Cements 229 for four in 44.5 overs (S. Suresh 55, J.R. Madangopal 63, S. Sharath 43).

At RRC: DTDC 178 for nine (Fayaz Ahmed 47, Murali Karthik three for 36) lost to Indian Railways 179 for four in 32.1 overs (Sudhir Wankhede 42, Amit Pagnis 36, Prahlad Rawat 54).

At ECIL: Vidarbha 193 (P. Vivek 56, P. Janbandhu 47) lost to IOB 198 for seven in 31.2 overs (Sivakumar 61, P. Rajkumar 33, R. Satish 49 not out).

At NFC: Assam 140 (Rajesh Borah 50, Sonu Sharma three for 27) lost to Indian Airlines 142 for no loss (J. Arun Kumar 62 not out, Vijay Dahiya 78 not out).

At LBS: IOC 208 for eight (Mayur Kadrekar 69, Mandar Phadke 47) lost to MRF 209 for six in 47.2 overs (Vikram Rathour 57, Rajat Bhatia 46, Hemang Badani 41, S. Sriram 40).

At HMWSSB: Districts 146 (Rohit Sabharwal 48, Kaushik 47, Avinash Aware six for 20) lost to Goa CA 148 for five in 40.3 overs (Balakrishna Miskin 34 not out, Avadoot Amonkar 35 not out).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Andy blooms but Zimbabwe forced to follow on
Next     : Malaysians keen on switching to European style