GUWAHATI, Nov 9 � On the penultimate day of the four-day Group C Ranji Trophy match, host Assam placed themselves in a commendable position taking four Hyderabadi first innings wickets for 218.
Earlier, Assam declared their first innings at the total of 501 for nine after 197 over of batting at the Barsapara stadium here. Assam resumed their innings at the overnight total of 422 for six and batted for one hour today. Gokul Sharma, not out 126 on yesterday, carried his bat and remained unbeaten on 161. He batted for a marathon 454 minutes and cracked 21 boundaries in his 332-ball knock. It was his third Ranji Trophy century and also the highest one. Overnight not out batsman Syed Mohammad could add just seven runs today. Arup Das remained unbeaten with 19 while Kunal Saikia and Abu Nechim Ahmed were out for 4 and 6 respectively.
Hyderabad started with a positive note as openers Tirumalasetti Laxminarayana Suman and Produturi Akshath Reddy added 135 runs for the opening wicket partnership in 39.4 overs. But as Reddy was clean bowled by offie Arlen Konwar, the visiting team found themeless in a fix. They lost another three wickets, including Suman, within a span of 79 runs.
Suman scored 126 before being caught by Syed Mohammad of part time medium pacer Pallab Das. He occupied the crease for 241 minutes and hit 9 boundaries and equal number of sixers. His batting was a cause of concern for the Assam captain. But much to the relieve of the Assam dressing room Mohammad took a beautiful catch to remove him. Reddy (39), Hanuma Vihari, IPL player of Sunrisers Hyderabad (34) and Akash Bhandari (9) could not last long. At stumps BP Sandeep (8) and Amol Shinde (0) were batting.
Abu, Arlen, Tarjinder and Pallab shared one wickets each today.
Hyderabad still need 284 runs on the final day to snatch three points from the host team. But considering the show of the Assam bowlers today, it will be little bit tough for them. Now everything will depend on Abu himself and how he uses his bowlers tomorrow.
SCORECARD
Assam 1st innings: PP Das lbw b Suman 31, DS Jadhav lbw b Shinde 5, SA Roy c Sandeep b Ashish Reddy 134, Tarjinder Singh run out 41, NK Patel b Shinde 12, A Konwar c Vihari b Shinde 0, G Sharma not out 161, J Syed Mohammad c Ravi Teja b Ravi Kiran 59, KN Saikia c Ahmed b Ravi Kiran 4, AN Ahmed c Suman b Ashish Reddy 6, AK Das not out 19, Extras: (b 8, lb 6, w 2, nb 8, pen 5) 29. Total: (9 wickets dec; 197 overs) 501. Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-60, 3-151, 4-178, 5-178, 6-285, 7-435, 8-448, 9-467. Bowling: CV Milind 26-6-82-0, M Ravi Kiran 35-8-92-2, A Ashish Reddy 25-12-65-2, AJ Shinde 75-29-143-3, GH Vihari 2-0-8-0, AA Bhandari 20-0-67-0, TL Suman 9-5-8-1, BP Sandeep 5-1-17-0.
Hyderabad 1st innings:TL Suman c Syed Mohammad b PP Das 126, PA Reddy b Konwar 39, GH Vihari lbw b Tarjinder Singh 34, BP Sandeep not out 8, AA Bhandari b Ahmed 9, AJ Shinde not out 0. Extras: (w 1, nb 1) 2. Total: (4 wickets; 71 overs) 218. Fall of wickets: 1-135, 2-201, 3-201, 4-214. Bowling: AN Ahmed 12-4-35-1, AK Das 8-1-38-0, A Konwar 16-4-62-1, J Syed Mohammad 27-8-55-0, G Sharma 1-0-10-0, Tarjinder Singh 5-0-12-1, PP Das 2-1-6-1.