Fearless: Tanmay and Tilak had no qualms in going after the Nagaland bowling.
| Photo Credit: V.V.SUBRAHMANYAM
Opener Tanmay Agarwal cracked his 13th Ranji century (164, 192b, 12×4, 3×6) and captain Tilak Varma notched up his third ton (101, 15b, 6×4, 5×6) of the season to help Hyderabad post a challenging 383 for five against Nagaland on the first day of the Ranji Trophy Plate Group semifinal at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Friday.
Electing to bat, Hyderabad’s in-form opener G. Rahul Singh (5) was beaten in flight by off-spinner Tahmeed Rahman to be bowled in the fourth over of the innings.
But, that joy proved to be short-lived as K. Rohit Rayudu joined the free-stroking Tanmay and the two put on 143 runs for the second wicket.
Rohit Rayudu seemed to be in a hurry, smashing three sixes very early in his innings but failed to get going again after looking good for a big knock, sweeping left-arm spinner Lemtur Imliwati to backward short-leg fielder in the 37th over. In fact, Rayudu couldn’t thrive on a dropped chance when he was on 58 by wicketkeeper Sumit Kumar of pacer Jaganath Srinivas.
Then, Tilak got lucky to be dropped on one with Jaganath failing to latch on to a skier after a badly executed lofted shot by the batter.
To the dismay of his teammates, the bowler ran right in front of the mid-off fielder and dropped the catch eventually despite a diving effort. And, that proved costly as the India star soon showcased with his trade-mark strokes — the backfoot punches through the off-side being the pick of them.
Not surprisingly, both Tanmay and Tilak completed centuries and as it had become the feature this season, there were no celebrations by the batters on crossing the three-figure mark.
There was some relief to Nagaland camp when both the well-set batters fell to catches in the deep when they tried to accelerate the scoring rate.
The scores:
Hyderabad – 1st innings: Tanmay Agarwal c Joshua b Jonathan 164, G. Rahul Singh b Tahmeed 5, K. Rohit Rayudu c Jaganath b Imliwati 59, Tilak Varma c (sub) Nagaho b Khrievitso 101, K. Nitesh Reddy batting 21, T. Ravi Teja b Jonathan 15, Pragnay Reddy batting 12. Extras: (b-6) 6; Total: (for five wkts in 90 overs) 383.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-157, 3-312, 4-335, 5-362.
Nagaland bowling: Tewatiya 12-4-34-0, Tahmeed 12-1-75-1, Jaganath 11-3-18-0, Jonathan 22-1-88-2, Khrievitso 14-0-71-1, Imliwati 19-0-91-1.
