Hyderabad wasted a golden opportunity to take firm control of the Ranji Trophy Elite division semi-final against Railways after suffering a top-order collapse in their second innings on the second day of the match in Delhi on Saturday.
The visitors, who were bowled out for 166 in the first innings, came back strongly to restrict the hosts to 180 runs this morning.
And when their two openers T Suman (32) and Daniel Manohar (63 not out) went about their task with clinical precision, it looked like the young Hyderabad side would bat the former champions of the contest.
But they suffered a batting collapse and finished the day at a sorry-looking 131 for five, a lead of just 117 runs and five wickets in hand.
At close, Arjun Yadav (5) was giving company to Manohar.
Suman and Manohar added 68 runs for the first wicket to give the side a rousing start. But when it looked like Railways' skipper Sanjay Bangar was running out of ideas, Suman gave a simple catch to T P Singh off left-arm spinner Murali Karthik.
This started a top order collapse with Bangar, who missed out with the bat, playing a crucial role in keeping his team's hopes alive as he bowled a brilliant spell, claiming two wickets in successive deliveries.
The match also witnessed some heated arguments between players of both sides as the Hyderabad batsmen took objection to some excessive appealing by their rivals while the Railways players seemed unhappy with some of the umpiring decisions.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 103 for four, Railways batsmen surrendered without much fight.
Apart from J P Yadav (40) and Karthik (28 not out), none of their batsmen showed the will to stay at the crease. The side collapsed from 139 for 4 to 180 all out.
While Yadav would consider himself unlucky to have been given out, caught behind off Pragyan Ojha, the other batsmen were themselves to blame for the dismal performance.
Yadav's wicket gave Ojha (5-55) a five-wicket haul in his Ranji Trophy debut.
Another debutant, leg spinner P S Niranjan, also made his mark claiming two wickets in his very first over to finish with figures of two for four.
Scorecard
Hyderabad (Ist innings): 166
Railways (Ist innings):
A Pagnis c Suman b Ojha 42
S Bangar c Anirudh c Ojha 24
T P Singh lbw Ojha 0
Raja Ali lbw b Ojha 10
J P Yadav c Khaleel b Ojha 40
Yere Gaud lbw Niranjan 19
S Khanolkar b Reddy 1
M Kartik not out 28
S Wankhede c Anirudh b Niranjan 0
Harvinder Singh b N P Singh 2
K Parida run out 0
Extras: (b-3, lb-5, nb-5 w-1) 14
Total: (all out in 59.5 overs) 180
Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-69, 3-70, 4-103, 5-140, 6-141, 7-173, 8-173, 9-176
Bowling: N P Singh 11-1-52-1, D Manohar 6-2-11-0, I S Reddy 19-5-50-1, P Ojha 22-8-55-5, P Niranjan 1.5-1-4-2.
Hyderabad (2nd innings):
T Suman c TP Singh b Kartik 32
D Manohar batting 63
D Vinay Kumar lbw J P Yadav 8
Anirudh Singh c Gaud b Kartik 6
A T Rayudu b Bangar 8
P S Niranjan lbw Bangar 0
A Yadav batting 5
Extras: (b-2, lb-1, nb-6) 9
Total: (for 5 wkts, 60 overs) 131
Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-90, 3-109, 4-121, 5-121
Bowling: J P Yadav 15-6-25-1, Harvinder 5-1-29-0, Kartik 20-5-43-2, Bangar 10-2-18-2, Parida 7-3-9-0, Khanolkar 3-1-4-0.
