Hyderabad hold all the aces

Railways faced an uphill task at stumps on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Super League group B match against Hyderabad at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds on Monday. After having conceding a first innings lead of 118 runs, Railways chasing a victory target of 331, were eight for one at close of play.

It was Hyderabad's day. First they restricted Railways, who resumed at 188 for six, to 229. Devendra Singh, their last bastion of strength, was ninth out for 87. VVS Laxman was chiefly responsible for restricting the Railways and finished with three for 11 off three overs. NP Singh however was the most successful bowler with four for 58.

In their second innings, Hyderabad were rocked by a double blow when Bhattacharya dismissed Nandakishore and Vinay Kumar with only 15 runs on the board. Laxman (45) and Vanka Pratap (38) however turned the innings around with a third wicket stand of 75 runs off 26.5 overs. Then P Satwalkar (45) and NA Yadav (43) chipped in with useful contributions, adding in the process 65 runs for the fifth wicket off nine overs. Finally, skipper Venkatpathi Raju declared the innings at 212 for seven.

When Railways commenced their second innings, Laxman again provided a vital breakthrough by dismissing Sanjai Bangar.