Hyderabad labours to victory

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 3. Hyderabad made heavy weather of a simple target, on an easy paced wicket against Vidarbha, after 20-year- old left-arm spinner Indersekhar Reddy bowled a wonderful spell of six for 30 to bundle out Vidarbha for 189 in 48.5 overs at Gymkhana in the Coromandel King Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup cricket tournament here on Monday. The home team finally managed to reach the target with just two wickets in hand.

Batting first, Vidarbha was never equal to the task of posting a challenging total, as it kept losing wickets regularly. Left-arm medium-pacers Vishnuvardhan and Mohd. Ghouse Baba and first- change bowler Vanka Pratap struck early blows. Left-arm spinner Indersekhar chipped in with the wicket of Ali Akbar, trapped lbw.

At one stage, Vidarbha was reeling at 56 for six by 20th over and crossing the three-figure mark looked improbable then. But, southpaw Atram (53, 74 balls, 6x4) and Preetam Gandhe (50, 94 balls, 2x4, 1x6) added 106 runs to lend respectability with some lusty hits, particularly square of the wicket. That was the phase when the Hyderabad bowlers looked ordinary.

Just when the two were threatening to post a big total, I.S. Reddy bowling a teasing line and length, claimed four wickets in the space of 11 balls conceding just 15 runs, to pull things back for Hyderabad.

The way he got rid of Atram and Preetam Gandhe was a sight to watch. After being hit for a boundary to long-on by Atram, Indersekhar used the crease intelligently to bowl one just fractionally short and wide to beat the batsman in the air and off the pitch for wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel to do the rest.

Soon, Gandhe was bowled through the gate with a brilliant delivery. The MBA student of Sai Sudhir College (ECIL), playing in his second Moin-ud-Dowla after a 20-wicket haul in four matches in the under-19 grade last year, should make the selectors take note of his talent as he mixed the straighter ones too very effectively. Indersekhar was definitely the pick of the bowlers.

In reply, Hyderabad was off to good start with left- handed Arvind Shetty, making a comeback to the State team after being in the wilderness for quite some time, looking really good as he made an aggressive 45 (43 balls, 7x4, 2x6). He hit Baburao Yadav virtually out of the firing line picking four boundaries in one over besides pulling one over square-leg later.

But, once his partner and captain Nandakishore (20) was run-out, trying to take a non-existent single after putting on 68, Hyderabad suffered regular blows. The running between the wickets was pathetic with Nandakishore, N. Arjun Yadav (16) and J. Shivaji Yadav (6) being the victims. D. Vinay Kumar (29) was one of the few batsmen who played the bowling on its merit.

However, the defiance of Md. Ghouse Baba and Vishnuvardhan, who joined when the team was in a spot of bother at 153 for seven in 33.4 overs, ensured that there were no more hiccups for the home team with the odd authentic stroke.

The scores:

At Gymkhana: Vidarbha 189 in 48.5 overs (Atram 53, Preetam Gandhe 50, Indersekhar Reddy six for 30) lost to Hyderabad 193 for eight in 45.2 overs (Arvind Shetty 45).

At RRC: Goa 184 for eight in 41 overs (Kiran Pawar 62, Amit Veleskar 48) lost to Railways 185 for two (Suresh Kumar 53, Amit Pagnis 66 not out).

At AOC: Canara Bank 206 in 49.3 overs (Vijay R. Bharadwaj 91, C. Raghu 32, Mansur Ali Khan 32, David Johnson three for 39, D.C. Rajesh four for 41) lost to DTDC 207 for five in 45.1 overs (Andeep Lele 62, M.S.K. Prasad 32, R.V.Ch. Prasad 44, T.S. Prasad 33).

At HMWWSB: Indian Airlines 102 (Tinu Yohanan three for 21) lost to Indian Overseas Bank 105 for three (Hemant Kumar 38 not out, Gagandeep Singh three for 14).

At NFC: Districts XI 145 (Rohit Sabharwal 72, D.J. Gokulakrishnan five for 19) lost to India Cements 150 for two (S. Suresh 38, Jesubabu Honeyman 59, J.R. Madanagopal 31 not out).

At ECIL: Indian Bank 233 (K. Srinath 50, Anand George 33, M.P. Sorab 36, N.S. Kumaraguru 44, Rajesh Bora three for 38) bt Assam CA 159 (Parag Das 35, Mritjunjoy Gohan 33, K. Chakradhar Rao four for 37, S. Balaji three for 42).

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