Hyderabad shot out for 124 on bowlers' day
A round-up of the action from the first day of the second round of the Ranji Trophy Plate League 2011-12
ESPNcricinfo staff
10-Nov-2011
Amol Jungade's five-for was the highlight of Vidarbha's day • ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Group A
Manisankar Murasingh picked up five wickets for Tripura at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Vijayawada, to dismiss Andhra for 235. Batting first, Andhra got into early trouble when Rana Dutta removed debutant Prasanth Kumar for a duck. Murasingh then got into the act, hacking through the middle order as the Andhra batsmen wasted a series of starts. Gonnabattula Chiranjeevi top-scored with 52, and lower-order batsmen Syed Sahabuddin, Vamsi Krishna and Atchuti Rao contributed scores in the 30s to lift them from 112 for 7 to 235 all out. Atchuti then rocked Tripura early with a double strike, as they went to stumps at 34 for 2.
Wickets dominated the proceedings at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association in Dharmasala. Amol Jungade and Sandeep Singh shared nine wickets between them to help Vidarbha roll Himachal Pradesh out for 195. Jungade finished with a five-for, while the hosts' flag was kept aflutter by opener Abhinav Bali. His strokeful 52 off only 66 balls stood out on a day when 12 wickets fell for 235. Varun Sharma's 43 was the other substantial contribution to the innings, his eighth-wicket stand of 51 with Vikramjeet Malik giving the bowlers something to bowl at. Vidarbha then lost their openers with stumps in sight, before they ended the day 40 for 2.
Services made slow progress against Kerala after winning the toss at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi. Rajat Paliwal made 73 off 155 balls from No. 3 to anchor the innings, while the rest of the Services line-up played around him. Soumyaranjan Swain and Yashpal Singh contributed obdurate 30s to the cause while Rohan Prem's offbreaks yielded 2 for 18 in 12 overs, typifying the attritional nature of proceedings.
Group B
A stubborn 73 from opener Dheeraj Jadhav couldn't lend respectability to Assam's first-innings effort against Goa at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. Assam's decision to bat first backfired against the new ball, as Saurabh Bandekar and Robin D' Souza made a breach apiece, to go with Chandan Rawat's run out. Gokul Sharma and Tarjinder Singh helped Jadhav stem the rot, before Amit Yadav sliced through the middle order to leave Assam wobbling at 129 for 6. Abu Nechim scored 20 from No. 9 to haul the score towards 200, but Assam still fell five runs short. Goa's reply got off to a disastrous start when they lost both their openers for ducks, setting up what promises to be a low-scoring scuffle.
Maharashtra's new-ball bowler Akshya Darekar snared five victims as Hyderabad were shot out for 124 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal. Like most other sides that won the toss in the Plate League, Hyderabad chose to bat and were let ruing the decision soon. No. 3 batsman Hanuman Vihari made a solid 38 to guide the score to 70 for 2, but chaos ensued thereafter. Only three other batsmen entered double-figures as Darekar, assisted by Samad Fallah, wrecked the lower order. Left-arm spinner Lalith Mohan pulled his side back into the game with two strikes late in the day as Maharashtra finished at 63 for 4.
Only 11 overs were possible on the opening day at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar, where the hosts bounded to 59 for 0 against Jharkhand. Adil Rishi was the more prolific of the Kashmir openers, scoring 36 off 41 balls, while Ian Dev Singh offered him solid company.