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A Hyderabad batsman gets ready to play a shot during the match at Keenan Stadium on Saturday. (Bhola Prasad) |
Jamshedpur, Oct. 27: It was another hard day at work for Jharkhand boys as Hyderabad continued piling on their agony, amassing 473 runs in their first innings after the second day’s play of the Col CK Nayudu Trophy (U-25) Group B match at Keenan Stadium.
Batting first on a friendly pitch, the visiting side took the Jharkhand bowlers to the cleaners after resuming on their overnight score of 274 for three, scoring freely, bisecting the gaps and finding the boundary at regular intervals.
P.J. Jhala, who was unbeaten on 39 yesterday, started the day cautiously playing out the initial threat and rotating the strike with his partner Benjamin Thomas. The duo stitched a 48-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Jhala was sent back to the pavilion by off-spinner Keshav Kumar who trapped him plumb in front of the wicket for 42 runs.
Benjamin, who started on four runs, then stepped into the senior partner’s role increasing the scoring rate and playing with authority to reach his half century. He, however, was done in by the guile of Jharkhand skipper Asif Fahad, who had him caught by Akash Verma for 58, leaving Hyderabad reeling at 354 for five.
However, any hopes of restricting the southern team to a low total was quashed by S.E. Rajan, who batted well under pressure and built steady partnerships. Apart from stitching a 39-run stand with Benjamin, Rajan also anchored other smaller partnerships with Ashish Reddy (11 runs), A.A. Bhandari (24 runs), V.G. Sharma (7 runs) and A. Lalit Mohan (22 runs) to frustrate the bowlers.
Rajan was the last man to be dismissed on 62 runs.
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