Hyderabad gain first innings lead

Hyderabad, Dec 18 (UNI) Hyderbad were in a strong position with a lead of 138 runs scoring 253 for five in reply to Mumbai's 115, at stumps on the second day in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group-B match at the Rajiv Gandhi international cricket stadium here today.

The Mumbai bowlers failed to restrict Hyderabad. With two more days remaining, Hyderbad are in a position to force an outright win and gain full points.

Resuming at their overnight score of 66 for 1, Hyderabad reached 123 losing three wickets in 67 overs at lunch. Overnight batsman Ravi Teja was the first to go adding only six runs to his score when he was caught by Muzumdar off Waingankar. Ravi Teja made 45 off 115 balls with the help of five fours. With score reading 73 for two, it appeared that Hyderbad were in trouble. But a determined Shashank Nag and skipper Anirudh Singh came to the rescue adding 37 runs for third wicket before the latter was out caught by Rohit Sharma off Ramesh Powar for 21 (60 balls, three fours).

Shashank was the next to go after the lunch break as he fell to Ramesh Powar caught by Muzumdar after making a patient 36 off 198 balls, including three fours. Arjun Yadav 29, (94 balls, two sixes) played a couple of big shots er the ropes, was trapped plumb in front of the wicket by S P Hazare.

He added 41 runs for the fifth wicket off 16.5 overs with Vinay Kumar, who remained unbeaten on 64. Vinay Kumar cracked the first half century of the match facing 132 balls with the help of seven fours and a six. With the help of wicket-keeper batsman Ibrahim Khaleel (41 no, 98 balls, one four) he took the score to 253 adding 79 runs in an unbroken stand for the sixth wicket.

The Score Board: Mumbai (First innings) 115 Hyderabad (Second innings Suman c Mota b Hazare 6 Ravi Teja c Muzumdar b Waingankar 45 Shashank Nag c Muzumdar b Powar 36 Anirudh Singh c Sharma b Powar 21 Arjun Yadav lbw b Hazare 29 Vinay Kumar (batting) 64 I Khaleel (batting) 41 Extras (b 2, lb 2, w 2, pen 5) 11 Total (For wkts) 253 Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-73, 3-110, 4-133, 5-174.

Bowling : S P Hazare 26-9-52-2, K Waingankar 21-4-55-1, WA Mota 14-5-15-0, R R Powar 29-7-65-2, N M Kulkarni 22-9-29-0, B J Thakkar3-0-10-0, N S Shetty 2-1-11-0, A A Muzumdar 1-0-3-0, V R Mane 1-0-4-0.

UNI XR/SM DH KP200