Vanka Pratap fights alone for Hyderabad

Hyderabad, needing an outright victory, did not do their cause any good on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match against Baroda at the Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad on Sunday. The home team were all out for 204 and Baroda, who on the other hand require just three points from this game to qualify for the knock out stage, were two for no loss when stumps were drawn.

Winning the toss, Hydrabad were off to a sound start with openers A Nandakishore (31 runs of 56 balls) and D Vinay Kumar (27 runs of 78 balls) putting on 57 runs off 16 overs. But Hyderabad could not build upon this and were soon 71 for three.

Vanka Pratap, who had come in at the fall of the second wicket at 71, boosted Hyderabad's hopes with three valuable partnerships. First, he and P Satwalkar (13) added 36 runs from ten overs for the fourth wicket. This was followed by a fifth wicket stand of 33 runs off 10.2 overs between Pratap and NA Yadav (19). Pratap kept one end going and then with R Sheikh (24 runs of 108 balls) added 35 runs off 19.3 overs for the sixth wicket. Pratap was the sixth batsman dismissed when the score was 175. However his departure triggered off a collapse and the last five wickets fell for 29 runs.

For Baroda, Valmik Buch was the most successful bowler taking three for 60 while Rakesh Patel and Tushar Arothe had two wickets each for 38 and seven runs respectively.