Ranji Trophy: Hyderabad, Bengal share honours on rain-hit day

Hyderabad inserted Bengal in to bat after a delayed start on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Group B match at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday.

But for the late evening blow by left-arm pacer Chama Milind, who trapped the well-set southpaw Sudip Chatterjee (32) in front, the home side would have been left to rue its call at the toss.

Clearly, Hyderabad’s brains-trust was tempted by the overcast conditions with the sun coming out only briefly very late in the evening.

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Pacer Ravi Kiran earned the first breakthrough when he forced the in-form opener Abhinav Raman to drive away from his body only to edge to  Rohit Rayudu, who took a good catch in the slips.

A 78-run stand for the second wicket between Abhimanyu Easwaran — unbeaten after a well-compiled half-century — and Chatterjee, who batted with a lot of responsibility, restored parity.

That said, the pace trio of Ravi Kiran, India international Mohammed Siraj and Milind was unlucky as quite a few edges fell short of the fielders in the cordon.

Earlier, overnight rains left certain parts of the ground wet in patches and it took a terrific effort from the groundstaff, under the supervision of neutral curator Prashanth (KSCA), to ensure action could finally commence before the tea-break.