Hyderabad slip up after gallant opening stand

Hyderabad lost their way after a century stand between openers Nanda Kishore and Daniel Manohar, closing out the third day of their Ranji Trophy South Zone clash against Tamil Nadu at a decidedly uncomfortable 268/5. They were replying to the visitors' imposing first innings score of 566 at the Nuclear Fuel Complex ground in Hyderabad. Acquiring the first innings lead, of which visions were raised when the openers were piling up 171 for the first wicket, now looks a mere pipedream. It was Tamil Nadu's spin attack of Balaji Rao (2/65) and Sridharan Sriram (3/51) which caused the rapid downswing in the host team's fortunes, sharing all five wickets betwen them.

Manohar and Nanda Kishore who resumed at 18 without loss kept the Tamil Nadu attack at bay for more than 55 overs today before the former was trapped leg before by wrist spinner Rao for 69 (185 balls, 9 fours). Anirudh Singh filled the breach and in his skipper's company lifted the score to 220 when events began to unfold with rapidity. Having batted almost five and a half hours for his 129 (227 balls, 18 fours), Nanda Kishore was bowled by Sriram.

The left arm spinner struck again 16 runs later, trapping Vanka Pratap leg before and in his next over he rattled Vinay Kumar's stumps for good measure to leave Hyderabad gasping at 244/4. There was more calamity to follow as Balaji Rao, not to be outdone, had Parth Satwalkar leg before for a tenth ball duck. In the midst of this procession, Anirudh Singh withstood all that was hurled at him to remain unbeaten on 38 and will resume battle on Saturday in the company of Fiaz Ahmed.