Sport - Cricket

Hyderabad forced to follow-on

AHMEDABAD: Hyderabad suffered the ignominy of being forced to follow-on and was struggling at 45 for three in its second innings against Gujarat at close on the third day of its four-day Ranji Trophy Super League match at Sardar Patel Stadium (Motera) here on Tuesday.

The Gujarat bowlers showed the desired discipline on a pitch which still looked good for batting while, it was a spineless display by Hyderabad’s batsmen.

Opener Tirumala Shetty perished again when looking good, nicking an away-swinger from Siddarth Trivedi to be caught behind.

Southpaw Rushi Raj ducked into a short-pitched ball from Trivedi which did not gain height and crashed into his nose and fractured it. He was rushed to the hospital, but showed character to delay the operation and came out to bat again.

Trivedi was clearly the pick of the bowlers.

At the stroke of lunch, captain Arjun Yadav could not resist the temptation to go for an on-side stroke and ended giving up a simple catch at mid-on. Hyderabad collapsed from 126 for three at lunch to 206 for eight at tea.

This was the phase when Parmar, a self-proclaimed copy of Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, held centrestage — more so because of his accuracy and awkward action than any great spin — to pick up three wickets.

That the diminutive Ahmed Quadri (57, 87 balls, 7x4) came up with some pleasing off-side strokes was proof that the pitch held no devils.

Hyderabad coach Kanwaljit Singh’s hopes of an improved display in the second essay, after being bowled out for 225 in the first essay, vanished in no time.

Trivedi was again impressive picking all the three wickets to fall.

First, Ravi Teja was visibly dejected at being declared lbw, then southpaw Anoop Pai shouldered arms to an in-swinger to be bowled and finally Abhinav Kumar was trapped on the shuffle to bring Gujarat closer to a probable outright victory on Wednesday.

The scores:

Gujarat — 1st innings: 520 for nine declared.

Hyderabad — 1st innings: T. Suman c P. Patel b S. Trivedi 22, Ravi Teja lbw b A. Makada 8, Rushi Raj c P. Patel b S. Trivedi 26, S. Anoop Pai b S. Trivedi 40, N. Arjun Yadav c A. Singh b M. Parmar 18, Abhinav Kumar c Panchal b M. Parmar 2, A. Quadri c T. Patel b A. Makada 57, M.P. Arjun b M. Parmar 0, S.M. Shoaib (run out) 11, Ashwin Yadav lbw b S. Trivedi 14, Lalit Mohan (not out) 0; Extras: (b-9 lb-11, w-2, nb-5) 27; Total: (in 81.2 overs ) 225.

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-72, 3-126, 4-132, 5-136, 6-141, 7-150, 8-183, 9-223.

Gujarat bowling: Trivedi 22-12-44-4, Makada 14.2-2-59-2, Parmar 23-6-44-3, Amit Singh 10-2-25-0, Timil 9-2-23-0, Sunny Patel 2-0-6-0, Niraj Patel 1-0-4-0.

Hyderabad — 2nd innings: T. Suman (batting) 23, Ravi Teja lbw b S. Trivedi 13, S. Anoop Pai b S. Trivedi 0, Abhinav Kumar lbw b S. Trivedi 0, N. Arjun Yadav (batting) 8; Extras: (w-1) 1; Total: (for three wkts in 17 overs) 45.

Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-28, 3-32

Gujarat bowling: Trivedi 6-2-16-3, Makada 5-0-20-0, Timil 3-1-2-0, Parmar 3-0-7-0.

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