The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Hyderabad fighting to stay in Super League

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Hyderabad fighting to stay in Super League

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: A confident Andhra takes on an inconsistent Hyderabad in a crucial Ranji Trophy super league cricket match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here from Sunday.

Hyderabad badly needs at least a first innings lead to keep alive it’s hopes of staying in the Super League and to avoid the ignominy of being relegated to the Plate Group.

So far it has only five points from four matches. On the other hand, Andhra thanks to its thrilling win over Orissa, has nine from three matches, behind group topper Baroda (14 points).

Andhra batting has been consistent with L.N. Prasad Reddy and Hemal Watekar, both scoring centuries in each innings of a match already this season.

Prasad Reddy (386 runs with three centuries), Watekar (274 runs with two centuries) and A.S.K. Varma (283 runs with three fifties) have done remarkably well.

Ominous sign

Their form is an ominous sign for the struggling Hyderabad bowlers. Even the left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, who has 17 wickets from four matches, invariably picked most of his scalps when the issue of first innings lead had been decided.

For Andhra, off-spinner Watekar and Mohd Faiq with seven wickets have been providing the crucial breakthroughs and are the back up to medium-pacer D. Kalyankrishna.

“We have got the momentum and we hope to sustain that. There is no scope for complacency. The pitch looks to be slow and low and might turn on the third and fourth days,” said Andhra coach Syed Abid Ali.

Hyderabad coach Kanwaljit Singh doesn’t believe it is the end of the road. “We are capable of pulling off a few surprises. It is high time that we come up with something special. We must do it in this match to stay in the race,” he said.

Definitely, he is looking for the batsmen like Ravi Teja , Amol Shinde, Daniel Manohar and Arjun Yadav to convert good starts into big knocks to back up the bowlers.

The teams (from):

Hyderabad: N. Arjun Yadav (capt), D.B. Ravi Teja, S. Daniel Manohar, S. Anoop Pai, Amol Shinde, P. Pragyan Ojha, Lalit Mohan, M.P. Arjun, Ashwin Yadav, Habib Ahmed, Santosh Yadav, Md. Shoaib, Khader, Vishal Sharma and Danny Derek Prince. Coaches: Kanlwajit Singh and Vivek Jaisimha.

Andhra: M.S.K. Prasad (capt), Y. Gnaneshwar Rao, D. Kalyankrishna, L.N. Prasad Reddy, Saraswathi Reddy, Vijay Kumar, Israel Raju, A.G. Pradeep, Sumanth, Sandeep, A.S.K. Varma, Shankar Rao, Md. Faiq, H. Watekar and Suresh. Coach: S. Abid Ali.

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