By Our Reporter
Shillong, Jan 13: Hyderabad effortlessly marched to victory by an innings and 81 runs against Meghalaya in their Ranji Trophy plate group match at the MCA Ground here on Saturday.
Yesterday, on the first day, Meghalaya had been bowled out for 111 and Hyderabad were 182/4 at stumps. This morning, KR Rayudu (not out overnight on 54) carried on from where he left off previous day to reach his century. He lost the company of Pragnay Reddy (who added 2 to his overnight score of 32) early on but created solid partnerships with Tanay Thyagarajan (35) and CV Milind (50 not out).
Hyderabad were in an aggressive mood and struck 164 runs in the 33 overs bowled in the morning session. The runs flowed off the bat, with the three Meghalaya spinners of Adarsh Joshi, BB Dey and Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva bearing the brunt.
The visitors declared on 346/7 at lunch. Milind had just enough time to bring up his half-century – doing so off the final ball of the session – with the No. 9 fast bowler smacking eight fours and a six in just 38 deliveries. Earlier, Rayudu, who was the eventual Player-of-the-Match, brought up his well-earned century with an enormous six that saw the ball sail out of the ground and probably into the Wahumkhrah. He finished the innings on an unbeaten 124 from 216 deliveries (12x4s, 3x6s). It was difficult for Meghalaya to keep their spirits up in the face of such a batting onslaught but they soldiered on as best they could. On Saturday Ram Gurung (3/55), Swarajeet Das (3/75) and Dippu Ch Sangma (1/61) claimed a wicket each, the first two adding to their tally of two scalps each previous day. Meghalaya then began their second innings needing 245 runs just to make Hyderabad bat again.
If the visitors aimed to win the match quickly, they started in the right way by taking the first three wickets cheaply. After that, however, came some major resistance by Meghalaya captain Kishan Lyngdoh, who was well supported by Tarique Siddique.
The pair put on 62 for the fourth wicket before Tarique (15 from 41) was run out rather needlessly.