Ranji Trophy: Hyderabad begin with 9-wkt win

Nagpur: Bowlers, led by paceman M. Ravi Kumar, scripted Hyderabad’s impressive nine-wicket win by bundling out Goa for 258 in their second innings on the fourth and final day of their Ranji Trophy Group ‘C’ match here on Sunday.

Goa, who conceded a 224-run first innings lead, needed to bat through the day to save the match but despite skipper Sagun Kamat (55) and Saurabh Bandekar (51) fighting knocks the side cracked under pressure.

Hyderabad needed only 35 runs to win and take six points which they did by losing just one wicket. Ravi removed both the Goan openers in his three-wicket haul while C.V. Milind, Mehdi Hasan and Vishal Sharma took two wickets apiece.

In Bhubaneswar, Prasanth Kumar (93 n.o) missed out on a hundred while G. H. Vihari (68 n.o) also hit an unbeaten half-century as Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh split points following a draw in their rain-hit Group ‘C’ match.

In Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh suffered badly due to ill-health of their skipper Suresh Raina crashing to an innings and 64-run loss against Madhya Pradesh.   

Brief Scores
Goa 164 and 258 (S. Kamar 55, S. Bandekar 51, M Ravi Kiran 3/40) lost to Hyderabad 388 and 35/1 in 5 overs. Points: Hyderabad 6, Goa 0
Himachal Pradesh 357 drew with Andhra 167 for 1 in 59 overs (D.B. Prasanth 93 not out, G. H. Vihari 68 not out)
Madhya Pradesh 465 bt UP 176 and 225 in 99.4 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 93, Sarfaraz Khan 49, Chandrakant Sakure 6/40). Points: MP 7; UP 0.