Velaskar, Kambli give Goa upper hand

Amitabh Velaskar and Narayan Kambli combined to give Goa the upper hand during their Ranji Trophy league match against Hyderabad at Panaji on Wednesday.

Batting overnight on 37, Velaskar went on to make 87 before falling as the ninth wicket. In the process, he took Goa past the 300-run mark. He was given little support from the tail, but managed to farm the strike enough to face 179 balls and hit 12 fours in his knock.

Replying to Goa's total of 306, Hyderabad received early setbacks when openers Daniel Manohar and A Nand Kishore were out with 32 runs on the board. When Anirudh Singh was dismissed, four wickets had fall for 41, and Kambli had taken three of them.

It took resolute fifties from D Vinay Kumar and Arjun Yadav to see Hyderabad through to the close of play. Vinay Kumar was unbeaten on 52 off 130 balls, while Yadav had made 53 off 132 balls at stumps. Hyderabad ended the day on 154/4.