Harbhajan goes wicketless; Amitoze, Gony share six

Amitoze Singh and Manpreet Gony shared six wickets as Punjab restricted Hyderabad to 244 for 7 on Day 1 of their Group A Ranji Trophy league match at the PCA stadium, in Mohali, on Friday.

It took Punjab some time to take the first wicket as Hyderabad openers Akshat Reddy (63) and D Ravi Teja (36) put on an impressive 77-run stand after being invited to bat.

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Almost all the Hyderabad batsmen good starts but could not convert those into big knocks. Hanuma Vihari (28), skipper VVS Laxman (23) and Arjun Yadav (34) batted well in the middle-order but could not carry on with their good work.

Ibrahim Khaleel (38) and Pragyan Ojha (4) were at the crease when stumps were drawn for the day.

Punjab skipper Harbhajan Singh failed to get among the wickets, though he was economical, conceding just 39 runs.

Medium pacer Amitoze (3-33) provided the first breakthrough when he had Teja caught by Harbhajan. Teja's 36 came of 97 balls with four shots to the fence.

Reddy and Vihari took the team past 100 runs but Sandeep Sharma broke the stand by dismissing the latter.

Gony (3-51) then dismissed Reddy, having him caught behind and from there on Hyderabad's innings fell apart. Reddy's 63-run knock off 154 balls was laced with 10 fours.

The visitors lost wickets intermittently and their innings never got the impetus.

Amitoze's big prize was the wicket of Laxman, who is playing his first match post-retirement from international cricket.

He had the classy batsman trapped in front of the wicket and followed it up with the wicket of Syed Quadri in the next ball. However, he could not complete his hat-trick.

Gony then took the last two wickets, dismissing Arjun Yadav (34) and Pagadala Naidu (1) in successive overs.

Brief scores:

Hyderabad: 244 for 7 in 90 overs. (Akshat Reddy 63, Ibrahim Khaleel 38 batting; Amitoze Singh 3-33; Manpreet Gony 3-51).