Ranji Trophy: Rohit ton saves the day for Hyderabad

Rohit Rayudu cracked maiden Ranji Trophy hundred (103, 239b, 10 x 4, 1 x 6) in his second match and B. Sandeep missed a thoroughly deserving century (93, 193b, 8 x 4, 1 x 6) as Hyderabad salvaged a creditable draw by finishing at 442 for eight, after being forced to follow-on, against Delhi on the final day of the four-day Group A match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday.

Rohit Rayudu after reaching his century in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Rohit Rayudu cracked maiden Ranji Trophy hundred (103, 239b, 10 x 4, 1 x 6) in his second match and B. Sandeep missed a thoroughly deserving century (93, 193b, 8 x 4, 1 x 6) as Hyderabad salvaged a creditable draw by finishing at 442 for eight, after being forced to follow-on, against Delhi on the final day of the four-day Group A match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Tuesday.

The morning session belonged to Hyderabad as the two overnight batsmen — Rohit and Sandeep –showed fine discipline and sensible stroke selection which made the Delhi bowling pacers look less menacing than they were in the first essay.

In the morning session, Rohit clearly thrived in the company of the more assured and experienced southpaw Sandeep and also on two dropped chances (when on 75 and 97) to eventually complete a century - sweeping Mishra. But it was obvious that he failed to show his range of strokes as freely against the pacers today also as he did against the spinners.

Scoreboard

On the other hand, ‘Mr Dependable’ Sandeep was all confidence, often stepping out to the spinners with ease and picking the gaps after handling the pacers pretty well.

However, from a very healthy score of 343 for two at lunch (Rohit on 101) and Sandeep (73), there was a collapse again with Mishra striking twice in the fourth over after the break — sending back Rohit and captain K. Sumanth (0).

Later, he induced an irresponsible stroke from Sandeep whose attempted lofted hit ended up in a simple catch in the deep.

The 24-year-old Mishra picked his fifth five-wicket haul in his 28th Ranji match which also fetched him the ‘man of the match’ award today.

Soon, part-timer Dhruv Shorey dismissed T. Ravi Teja and Akash Bhandari in quick succession to reduce Hyderabad to 397 for six.

Suddenly, there were remote hopes of a Delhi win but later Saaketh Sai Ram (35, 48b, 4 x 4) and Pragyan Ojha (2, 42 b) batted sensibly and importantly consumed time at the crease to force a draw.

Delhi picked three points from this match to finish the league with 27 points to be second in the group behind Karnataka (32) while Hyderabad got one to finish fourth with 16 points.