C V Milind was back at the helm of affairs for Hyderabad and the left-arm seamer bowled his heart out but he lacked support at the other end as Assam, riding on Sibsankar Roy’s fine century, pulled off a four-wicket victory with three balls to spare in a high-scoring Vijay Hazare Trophy match at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot on Monday.
Assam, facing a daunting task to chase down Hyderabad’s 310, lost opener Pradyun Saikia, run out by Rahul Buddhi, for 14. Saurav Dihingia and skipper S Ghadigaonkar (7) took the score to 50 before the latter became Milind’s first of three victims. If Hyderabad had entertained any hopes of making further inroads, they were denied by Dihingia and Roy. The duo fully exposed the weak Hyderabad bowling. Barring Milind none of the other bowlers looked like taking a wicket.
The duo added 142 for the third wicket off 149 balls with southpaw Roy contributing 73 off 68 balls and Dihingia contributing a more sedate 66 of 81 balls. Dihingia was run by B Punnaiah on 91 (112 balls, 9×4, 1×6) but there was no respite for Hyderabad.
Roy was joined by Denish Das, and they added another 93 to the total off 84 balls. Milind struck by having Roy caught by Abhirath Reddy but not before the batter had made 112 off 109 balls with 11 fours and a six.
Denish (54; 46balls 7×4) was sent back by Varun, caught by Nitin Yadav, and Milind packed off Nihar Deka (12), again caught by Nitin Yadav. Assam were 302 for six with six balls left to get the remaining nine runs.
Purkayastha eased the tension in his camp when he struck Milind for a boundary off the last ball of the penultimate over. Then AJ Kuraishi completed the rituals in the final over as Assam made 314 for six.
Hyderabad, who had lost both their earlier games, made their intent clear when they chose to bat first. Their strategy was to bat out their rivals and they almost succeeded in it as they ran up 310 for eight.
Hyderabad had a solid start with openers Tanmay Agarwal and G Rahul Singh putting on 46 off 50 balls with Rahul doing the bulk of the scoring. After Tanmay’s departure, Rahul was joined by Abhirath Reddy and Hyderabad had the best partnership going. The duo added 93 off 94 balls to lay a solid platform for Hyderabad to launch their attack. But once Rahul fell for 79 off 71 balls with 14 fours, Hyderabad slowed down a bit as they lost Pragyan Reddy (5) and Abhirath (54). They were reduced to 166 for four.
Rahul Buddhi and Varun Goud then rebuilt the innings with a 66-run stand which came of 70 balls for the fifth wicket with Varun scoring 39 of those. Varun fell after making 42. Rahul went for 35 and Nitesh Reddy was the last man to fall as Hyderabad reached 310 for eight in their 50 overs.
AA Kuraishi finished with figures of three for 71. Roy was named the player of the match for his match-winning knock.
SCOREBOARD
Hyderabad: Tanmay Agarwal lbw Purkayastha 14, Rahul Singh st Ghadigaonkar b Purkayastha 79, Abhirath Reddy c Deka b Roy 54, Pragnay Reddy c Dihingia b Roy 5, A Varun Goud c Deka b Malakar 42, Rahul Buddhi c Choudhury b Kuraishi 35, Nitesh Reddy c Das b Kuraishi 53, Chama Milind c Dihingia b Kuraishi 13, Aniketh Reddy (not out) 1; Extras: (LB4, NB2, W8) 14. Total: (For 8 wickets in 50 overs) 310.
Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-139, 3-163, 4-166, 5-232, 6-261, 7-309, 8-310.
Bowling: M Hussain 4-0-27-0, A Malakar 10-0-77-1, AA Kuraishi 9-1-71-3, S Purkayastha 9-0-60-2, A Choudhury 10-0-40-0, S Roy 5-0-26-2, D Das 3-0-5-0.
Assam: Pradyun Saikia (run out) 14, Saurav Dihingia (run out) 91, Sumit Ghadigaonkar c sub (Kak) b Milind 7, Sibsankar Roy c Abhirath b Milind 112, Denish Das c Yadav b Goud 54, Nihar Deka c Yadav b Milind 12, AJ Kuraishi (not out) 10, S Purkayastha (not out) 4; Extras: (NB1, W6, LB3) 10. Total: (For 6 wickets in 49.3 overs) 314.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-50, 3-192, 4-285, 5-293, 6-302.
Bowling: B Punnaiah 9-0-67-0, Chama Milind 10-1-68-3, Nitin Sai Yadav 10-0-49-0, G Aniketh Reddy 10-0-52-0, K Nitesh Reddy 3-0-23-0, A Varun Goud 7.3-0-52-1.
