Yohanan, Chandran give Hyderabad a scare

Hyderabad survived a scare to take home five first innings points in their P Ramachandra Rao Trophy Under 22 game against Kerala at the Nuclear Fuel Complex Ground in Hyderabad on Friday. Earlier in the day Kerala new ball bowlers Tinu Yohanan and Prasanth Chandran blew away the home team for just 117 in their second innings. That left Kerala a victory target of 207 but they showed little inclination to take up the gauntlet, limping to 92/3 in 43 overs when stumps were drawn.

Hyderabad were bowled out for 263 on the first day, middle order bat N Vishal top scoring with an aggressive 81 off 109 balls (9 fours, 3 sixes) before being ninth out. Earlier opener A Agarwal had provided some solidity at the top of the order with a valuable 69, adding 91 for the second wicket with Anirudh Singh (38). Spinners Shaju Mathen and Sreekumar Nair claimed seven wickets between them to peg back the hosts.

Left arm seamer, Mohd. Ghouse then ran through Kerala with a brilliant haul of 8/43. The 22-year-old from Mahboobnagar began the mayhem by sending back Girilal and Vipin Lal off successive balls to leave Kerala at 37/2. AC Premjith (72) and skipper Sreekumar Nair (64) now forged a recovery, adding 89 for the third wicket. But Ghouse came back to haunt the visitors, claiming a hattrick as Kerala slumped from 126/2 to 174 all out. With the first three balls of his 30th over, Ghouse sent back Mathen, CM Shyam and Yohanan and came back in his next over to finish off the innings.

Going into their second innings with a lead of 89, Hyderabad came a cropper to be bowled out for 117 half an hour after lunch on the final day. Yohanan (5/51) and Chandran (4/54) took the first nine wickets before Nair finished off the innings in the 44th over. Kerala had a maximum of 50 overs in which to score the 207 runs and the match was called off with seven of the 15 mandatory overs still to be bowled. Ghouse had enough time to add two more victims to take his match figures to 10/74.