The only time left-handed Hyderabad opener Tanmay Agarwal looked in discomfort was in the 66th over when he pulled a muscle. Rest of the day it was Vidarbha bowlers who were in search of answers to the visitors solid batting which helped them take the first innings lead. Riding on Agarwal’s (136) third century of the season, Hyderabad, who started their day at 90-2, posted 326 against Vidarbha’s 190, taking an overall lead of 136 runs on the second day of their Ranji Trophy match at VCA Civil Lines ground on Friday. At the end of day’s play, Vidarbha were 56-2 losing the wickets of Shorey and night-watchman Aditya Thakare. The hosts still trail by 80 runs. Atharva Taide and Shorey batted well and added 47 runs for the opening wicket before Shorey was sent back by Rakshann Readdi’s superb delivery which clipped the bails in the 17th over.

 

Thakare was bowled two deliveries before stumps by Mohd Siraj who set up the batter beautifully and brought one back with his inswinger to end the day’s play. The two wickets swung the initiative back in Hyderabad’s favour a bit but Vidarbha will look to batting strong whole day on the morrow and their first target would be to wipe out the lead and bounce back in the match, which they had done on several occasions in the past. Hyderabad’s Agarwal, who is the leading run scorer of this Ranji season with 928 runs, was solid in his batting. Resuming the day at his personal score of 53, the 29-year-old left-handed batter negotiated Vidarbha pacers with utmost ease. His chanceless innings of 136 was decorated with 13 boundaries and a six. Agarwal started the day slowly scoring only seven runs in the first hour. But gradually he opened up and scored some exquisite boundaries.

 

 

There was a beautiful reverse sweep boundary off Vidarbha spinner Harsh Dubey, a straight as an arrow four off Parth Rekhade and pull shots against pacer Yash Thakur which fetched him runs. With Agarwal strong at one end, other batters supported the opener as they stitched crucial partnerships in their innings with the best being between Agarwal and Rahul Buddhi of 61 runs for the fifth wicket. It was pacer Thakur who broke Agarwal’s strong resistance with the second new ball. The pacer bowled a beautiful length delivery which kept a bit low only to dislodge Agarwal’s bails in the 87th over. That was the only time Agarwal was beaten in his entire innings. Immediately thereafter, Hyderabad’s innings folded in next 26 minutes as they lost the remaining three wickets in no time. Thakur sent back rival captain CV Milind caught by wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar on the last ball of 96th over and in the next Dubey wiped out the tail in space of three deliveries. Earlier in the morning, experienced veteran spinner Akshay Wakhare broke the partnership between overnight batters Agarwal and K Himateja sending back the latter on the stroke of hour’s play. Himateja tried to forward defence a delivery but guided the ball towards Danish Malewar at silly point who grabbed it easily. Parth Rekhade then took his maiden Ranji Trophy wicket in Varun Goud (24) cleaning his furniture with a straighter one. Rahul Buddhi innings was cut short by Aditya Thakare off a bouncer which was beautifully caught at deep midwicket by Akshay Wakhare.

 

 

 

 

 A decent crowd turned up at VCA Civil Lines Stadium to watch India pacer Mohd Siraj in flesh and blood. The stand in the north wing was full with the spectators. During Hyderabad’s innings, Siraj came in to bat but was left stranded at the non-striker’s end as the last two wickets fell in space of three deliveries. But while bowling, Siraj entertained the crowd and also signed autographs for them who chanted ‘RCB...RCB....RCB and Siraj...Siraj...Siraj... The crowd was unaware that Siraj is no more with Royal Challengers Bangalore and will be playing for Gujarat Titans this IPL season. Still, Siraj obliged the fans signing autographs even during the last drinks break of the day.

 

 

Vidarbha opener Dhruv Shorey was hit on his left thumb during the second innings on second evening. Shorey, who was batting on 15, failed to read the pace of Hyderabad seamer Rakshann Readdi’s last delivery of 11th over. Shorey fell to the ground holding his left wrist in pain as doctors attended him on the field. After onfield treatment, Shorey continued with his batting with his opening partner Athrava Taide. During the drinks break, the doctor again came to ground to check Shorey’s thumb.