Laxman's lone hand keeps Hyderabad afloat

A plucky century from Test discard VVS Laxman lifted Hyderabad to a modest 246/8 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy quarter final match against Uttar Pradesh at the Green Park in Kanpur. Medium pacer Ratnesh Mishra did the star turn for UP with a bag of four wickets for 23 runs that pulled the rug from under the Hyderabad lower middle order. In the absence of Mohd. Azharuddin, who's made 605 runs for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy this season at an average of over 86, it was down to Laxman to salvage Hyderabad's honour after the rest of the batsmen around him failed to support his disciplined approach.

Opener Nandakishore was snapped up by Ashish Zaidi for 3 in the fifth over and his partner Daniel Manohar was snared by Mishra for a sparkling but ephemeral 28, inclusive of six boundaries, to leave the score at 36/2. Laxman and Vanka Pratap then put on 56 for the third wicket in just under 24 overs before Pratap was trapped in front of the wicket by the 19 year old left arm seamer, Sallabh Srivastava.

Another partnership of 71 followed between Laxman and Vinay Kumar but the latter was castled by Mohd. Kaif for 24 (62 balls, 5 fours) and Hyderabad were now down to 163/5. UP captain Gyanendra Pandey then got into the act, bowling Parth Satwalkar for 10 for his only wicket of the innings. All the while, Laxman was playing a lone hand, reaching his fifty from 123 balls with four fours. Hyderabad's 200 came up in the 68th over but Ratnesh Mishra cleaned up the lower order, disposing NA Yadav, wicket keeper R Sheikh and captain Venkatapahy Raju one after the other.

Laxman posted his fourth century of the season from 187 balls and 301 minutes, with ten fours and a six. Hyderabad opening bowler NP Singh was keeping Laxman company at stumps as the visitors limped to 246/8 in 90 overs with only Kanwaljit Singh still to bat. Laxman was undefeated on 118 in 242 balls with 12 hits to the fence and one over it to take his aggregate for the season to over 500 at an average of close to three figures.