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A patient century from Karun Nair and a three-wicket haul from Mohammed Siraj ensured the final Ranji Trophy Group B fixture between Hyderabad and Vidarbha will trickle into the final day with the game in the balance. Karun’s century and contributions from Atharva Taide and Harsh Dubey ensured the home team fought back from a precarious position to put up a 220-run target for the visitor to overcome. The chase suffered a blow when first-innings centurion Tanmay Agarwal was cleaned up by Yash Thakur a couple of overs before the end of the day’s play.
Hyderabad will hope the pitch holds firm on the fourth day as it looks to hunt down the remaining 198 runs and register just its third win of the season. Earlier, Vidarbha’s pursuit of erasing the first-innings lead, got off to a torrid start after Siraj found a bit of nip to force Danish Malewar to nick one through to the keeper. With the team still 94 runs in the negative, the onus was on Taide and Karun to help the team through the difficult phase.
Karun had a couple of wobbly moments early on, almost nicking his first ball to the slips and nearly dragging one onto his stumps a few balls later. The right-hander eventually broke the shackles with six down the ground against G. Anikethreddy.
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The break in play proved to be a momentum breaker as Taide fell seven short of a century, playing one onto his stumps against Varun Goud. Egged on by the crowd, Siraj bowled an inspirational five-over spell after the recess, picking up his third wicket of the innings when he forced Yash Rathod to edge one to the cordon. The India pacer had an enterprising tussle with Karun, inducing multiple edges from the middle-order batter, although none went to hand.
Skipper Akshay Wadkar lingered for 23 balls before edging a Tanay Thyagarajan delivery to first slip. Karun continued to accumulate runs behind square against pace and spin alike and found an able partner in Harsh, who continued where he left off in the first innings, launching a straight six and a fine flick off Anikethreddy to get his innings underway. Karun reached the triple-figure mark in 174 balls, his second century of the season, pushing the home team’s lead past 100.
The 33-year-old fell to Thyagarajan moments after forging a 50-run stand with Harsh, failing to get his foot behind the line after being beaten by one that spun away from a length. With the field spreading and debutant Parth Rekhade showing sound temperament to keep the runs ticking, Harsh eased into his innings. After surviving a close lbw shout, the southpaw crunched Siraj through covers to send the crowd into ruptures.
The 50-run partnership between the pair signalled ominous signs for Hyderabad but Rakshann Readdi managed to dislodge Harsh’s stumps before Rekhade deflected a short ball onto his stumps, off his helmet grill, against C.V. Milind.
The skipper picked his second a few balls later, forcing Thakur to hole out at deep square leg, closing out the home team’s innings at 355. Comments Related stories Related Topics Vidarbha / Hyderabad / Ranji Trophy / Karun Nair / Mohammed Siraj Latest on Sportstar.
