In a match that went down the wire, Hyderabad held its nerves to register a 44-run victory against rookies Chhattisgarh and take another stride towards qualifying for the knockouts in a Ranji Trophy Group C match at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium.
After setting Chhattisgarh a target of 286 runs off 91 overs, Hyderabad eventually bowled the Ranji debutants Chhattisgarh in the ninth of the 15 mandatory overs. While the pace triumvirate led by Ravi Kiran continued to strike at regular intervals before leggie Akash Bhandari came into play late in the evening to wipe off the tail. Hyderabad was also a beneficiary of seeing contentious umpiring decisions going its way.
Both the Chhattisgarh openers stood their ground in disbelief after being ruled out early on in a tall chase. Abhimanyu Chauhan was adjudged leg before by umpire Umesh Dubey off Kiran in the fifth over of the chase. In his next over, Kiran jagged one back which appeared to have rapped on to Sahil Gupta’s pads. While the rest of the cordon went up for a lbw shout, B. Sandeep ran in from gully before lunging forward to catch the ball and Dubey held the appeal.
Despite changing the batting line-up, Chhattisgarh failed to build on partnerships. Amandeep Khare and Ashutosh Singh impressed with their cover drives and flicks, respectively. While Khare was sharply caught in the slips by Benjamin Thomas off Kiran after lunch, captain Mohammad Kaif played left-armer C.V. Milind on to the stumps three balls after pulling the bowler for a six.
With Chhattisgarh placed 178 for five, the game was still in the balance at tea. However, soon after the interval, Kiran gave Hyderabad the prize scalp of Ashutosh, who fiddled with one that moved slightly away from him.
The last regognised batsman, Sumit Ruikar, did his best to keep Chhattisgarh on track to earn six points, but the left-handed was adjudged leg before by Saheba off Bhandari in the eighth mandatory over. The rest of the tail then fell apart to help Hyderabad complete a hard-earned victory.
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