Hyderabad batters, led by Abhirath Reddy and K Himateja, sent the Chhattisgarh fielders on a leather hunt as they ran up 415 for four by close of play on the second day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group D match at the Gymkhana in Secunderabad on Friday.
Opener Abhirath scored a fine 121 and K Himateja was batting on 125 (207 balls; 13×4). Giving Himateja company was Pragnay Reddy on 52 (66 balls; 8×4, 1×6).
Resuming at their overnight score of 56 for no loss, Aman Rao, who was on 32, and Abhirath, who was on 23, carried on in the same vein as the previous day.
The first wicket yielded 96 runs with Aman Rao, notching up his maiden First-Class half-century. Aman was caught by Dev Aditya Singh off Aditya Sarvate after making an attractive 52 which came off 79 balls and contained eight fours and a six.
Rahul Singh and Abhirath then added 46 for the second wicket with Rahul doing the bulk of the scoring. He contributed 39 off 32 balls and struck six fours and a six.
Rahul’s departure brought Himateja to the crease and Hyderabad had their most fruitful season. The duo mixed caution with aggression as they took the Hyderabad score past the Chhattisgarh total.
With six runs ahead, Hyderabad lost Abhirath as he was caught by Mayank Verma off Ayush Pandey. By that time Abhirath had gone on to score 121 off 186 balls with 16 boundaries and one over it.
Abhirath and Himateja had added 147 of 214 balls with Abhirath scoring 71 of those in 101 balls and Himateja contributing 69 of 113 balls.
Rahul Radesh (18) failed to last long but Himateja and Pragnay Reddy consolidated Hyderabad’s lead with an unbroken 91-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
Pragnay was the dominant partner as he scored 52 of 66 balls, while Himateja was content to wear down the bowlers, as is his vaunt. He contributed 39 to the partnership.
Hyderabad have a lead of 132 and with six wickets still in hand should be able to press the accelerator and make sure that they don’t have to bat again. On the other hand, Chhattisgarh have an uphill task on their hand to save the game.
SCOREBOARD
CHHATTISGARH (1st innings): 283
Hyderabad (1st innings): Aman Rao c Aditya Singh b A Sarvate 52, Abhirath Reddy c Mayank Verma b Ayush Pandey 121, Rahul Singh G c Mayank Verma b Aditya Singh 39, Himateja K (batting) 125, Rahul Radesh b Ravi Kiran 18, Pragnay Reddy (batting) 52; Extras: (B1, LB7) 8. Total: (For 4 wickets in 105 overs) 415.
Fall of wickets: 1-96, 2-142, 3-289, 4-324.
Bowling: Ravi Kiran 19-1-82-1, Aditya Sarvate 29-4-103-1, Aditya Singh 13-3-57-1, Sahban Khan 30-2-122-0, Ayush Pandey 9-2-26-1, Praneeth Yadav 5-0-17-0.
