Ranji Trophy: Maharashtra ahead despite Kak’s efforts

Kartikeya Kak returned with an impressive bowling figures of 7/91 but Maharashtra are still ahead in the game as Hyderabad lost five wickets for 176 at stumps

Hyderabad: Kartikeya Kak returned with an impressive bowling figures of 7/91 but Maharashtra are still ahead in the game as Hyderabad lost five wickets for 176 at stumps, still trailing by 209 runs on the second day of the Group B Ranji Trophy match in Pune on Wednesday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 353/5, Maharashtra were all out for 385 runs, thanks to Kak who scalped four more wickets in the day to trigger the opposition’s collapse. However, Hyderabad were in trouble losing half of their side with a mountain to climb. Earlier, Kak got the proceedings going by dismissing Akshay Palkar, Taranjitsingh Dhillon, Satyajeet Rachhav and Naushad Shaikh (152 off 241; 20×4) while Ravi Teja bowled last man in.

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Hyderabad, in reply, lost captain Tanmay Agarwal in the very first over. But Rohit Rayudu (68 off 186; 4×4, 2×6) and Rahul Radesh (55 off 161; 10×4) scored half-centuries and added 100 runs for the second wicket. After their dismissal, Hyderabad lost debutant P Nitesh Reddy and Chandan Sahani cheaply. At stumps, Santosh Goud (18) and T Ravi Teja (1) were at the crease.

Brief Scores: Maharashtra 385 in 96.2 overs (Naushad Shaikh 152, Kedar Jadhav 71, Akshay Palkar 61; Kartikeya Kak 7/91, Ravi Teja 3/54) vs Hyderabad 176/5 in 75 overs (Rohit Rayudu 68, Rahul Radesh 55).