Moin-ud Dowla Cup final: Cements crack despite Abhinav’s royal pasting

The visitors, sitting pretty at 275 for 3 with their Big Two in the middle, slumped to 299 all out — about 60 runs short — by close of play on the first of their three-day final at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.

Captain Abhinav was the star of the day. The opener soaked up the initial juice in the wicket that had energised the hosts, before settling down to play a responsible innings of 154 that came off 212 balls with the help of 17 boundaries. Karthik played second fiddle with an energetic 82 rattled off 96 deliveries with six hits to the fence and two over it.

The first session belonged to the hosts, who reduced Cements to 73 for 2 at lunch. Soon it was 127 for 3, which brought Abhinav and Karthik together. That association frustrated the Hyderabadis, who struggled to come to grips with the situation, literally.

It did not help that Abhinav (on 76) was dropped by Anwar Ahmed Khan at mid-off, much to the disgust of bowler Mehdi Hasan. The left-arm spinner was unlucky again, this time wicketkeeper Habeeb Ahmed bungling a chance to stump Karthik when the batsman had only scored a dozen with the side total reading 145 for 3.

The Big Bats capitalised on those chances and made merry, raising 148 runs for the fourth wicket before Abhinav fell, caught behind by Habeeb off pacer Sudeep Tyagi. That triggered a collapse as the Cements cracked up.