Middle-order blues continued to haunt Chandigarh in the Ranji Trophy opener as the UT side suffered a humiliating 217-run loss to domestic giants Hyderabad in their Elite Group B contest at Cuttack on Sunday.
Chasing a mammoth 401, Chandigarh started the day at 21/2 and kept losing wickets at regular intervals to eventually fold up for a meagre 183. Pacer Ravi Teja, who picked both the wickets on Saturday evening, continued from where he left to end up with magical figures of 6 for 41. He was assisted well by fellow medium pacer Raksham Readdi (3/62) and Tanay Thyagarajan (1/70), as Hyderabad grabbed six points from the fixture.
On Sunday, Chandigarh lost night watchman Gaurav Gambhir after the addition of four runs to the overnight score, before skipper Manan Vohra walked in to join opener Arslan Khan, who made up for his flop show in the first innings, with a patient 68 off 90 balls, powered by 13 hits to the fence.
Vohra, who had scored a century in the first essay, looked in good touch, and together with Arslan stabilized the Chandigarh innings with a healthy 71-run fourth wicket stand before nicking one behind to the keeper Pratik Reddy off Rakhsam, after getting to a decent start of 22 off 54 balls. Arslan soon followed his skipper to the dressing room after getting to his half century, to leave Chandigarh reeling at 108 for 5. Stumper Arjit Pannu (4) also failed to trouble the scorers and departed cheaply.
The last recognized batting pair of Ankit Kaushik and Rajangad Bawa made a valiant attempt to delay the inevitable, stitching a 67-run seventh wicket stand to take the side to 182. But Ravi Teja’s arrival for a second spell once again derailed Chandigarh’s ship as the pacer trapped Ankit right in front to end his adventurous 47-ball 32, laced with five boundaries.
With hopes of saving the match fading out, Raj decided to change gears as remained unbeaten on a 47-ball 35, even as Ravi lost no time in packing back the trio of Gurinder Singh, Jagjit Singh Sandhu and Sandeep Sharma for consecutive ducks.
Yet to open their points tally, Chandigarh will now have to go back to the drawing board and chalk out a strategy to atleast offer some kind of resistance when they take on Baroda from February 24 in their second round fixture, before facing another domestic giant Bengal in the final encounter of the first phase from March 3.
Brief Scores:
Hyderabad 247 & 269/8 declared beat Chandigarh 216 & 183 all out in 50.5 overs (Arslan Khan 63, Rajangad Bawa 35 not out, Ankit Kaushik 32, Manan Vohra 22; Ravi Teja 6/41, Rakshann Readdi 3/62) by 217 runs.
Chasing a mammoth 401, Chandigarh started the day at 21/2 and kept losing wickets at regular intervals to eventually fold up for a meagre 183. Pacer Ravi Teja, who picked both the wickets on Saturday evening, continued from where he left to end up with magical figures of 6 for 41. He was assisted well by fellow medium pacer Raksham Readdi (3/62) and Tanay Thyagarajan (1/70), as Hyderabad grabbed six points from the fixture.
On Sunday, Chandigarh lost night watchman Gaurav Gambhir after the addition of four runs to the overnight score, before skipper Manan Vohra walked in to join opener Arslan Khan, who made up for his flop show in the first innings, with a patient 68 off 90 balls, powered by 13 hits to the fence.
Vohra, who had scored a century in the first essay, looked in good touch, and together with Arslan stabilized the Chandigarh innings with a healthy 71-run fourth wicket stand before nicking one behind to the keeper Pratik Reddy off Rakhsam, after getting to a decent start of 22 off 54 balls. Arslan soon followed his skipper to the dressing room after getting to his half century, to leave Chandigarh reeling at 108 for 5. Stumper Arjit Pannu (4) also failed to trouble the scorers and departed cheaply.
The last recognized batting pair of Ankit Kaushik and Rajangad Bawa made a valiant attempt to delay the inevitable, stitching a 67-run seventh wicket stand to take the side to 182. But Ravi Teja’s arrival for a second spell once again derailed Chandigarh’s ship as the pacer trapped Ankit right in front to end his adventurous 47-ball 32, laced with five boundaries.
With hopes of saving the match fading out, Raj decided to change gears as remained unbeaten on a 47-ball 35, even as Ravi lost no time in packing back the trio of Gurinder Singh, Jagjit Singh Sandhu and Sandeep Sharma for consecutive ducks.
Yet to open their points tally, Chandigarh will now have to go back to the drawing board and chalk out a strategy to atleast offer some kind of resistance when they take on Baroda from February 24 in their second round fixture, before facing another domestic giant Bengal in the final encounter of the first phase from March 3.
Brief Scores:
Hyderabad 247 & 269/8 declared beat Chandigarh 216 & 183 all out in 50.5 overs (Arslan Khan 63, Rajangad Bawa 35 not out, Ankit Kaushik 32, Manan Vohra 22; Ravi Teja 6/41, Rakshann Readdi 3/62) by 217 runs.