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Laxman's second ton raises Hyderabad hopes

With no option but an outright ahead of them, visitors Hyderabad -- 71 runs behind on the first innings -- have played a big gamble, throwing the gauntlet to Uttar Pradesh as they declared their second innings at 381 for five in the Ranji Trophy quarter-final at the Green Park, Kanpur.

Hyderabad thus put in front of Uttar Pradesh the choice of getting either 311 for victory from a possible 111 overs or batting out the last day.

At draw of stumps on Sunday, the fourth day of the match, the hosts had got 38 of those runs. And the man responsible for putting Hyderabad in this position of strength was the wristy maestro, Venkata Sai Laxman. The India discard struck his second century of the match, a big unbeaten 177, setting up for Hyderabad a position from whereon they will be on an even keel with Uttar Pradesh. Thanks to Laxman's stroke-filled knock, following his first innings 128, Hyderabad now have a great chance of registering a come-from-behind win.

As things stand now, Hyderabad have a minimum of 90 overs -- though one has a feeling they may well cross the 100-mark in pursuit of a win -- to register a much-sought-after outright win.

UP, on the other hand, have to bat out the overs or score at a decent rate of three an over to overhaul the target.

Earlier, Hyderabad -- 72 for one overnight -- scored 309 runs today in just 67 overs with the bulk of the score coming from the blazing blade of Laxman. This is the second time Laxman has struck a century in each innings of the national championship. Last season he had made 110 and 193 against Delhi at Secunderabad. This was also Laxman's sixth Ranji century of the season. Having made two centuries against Goa and Andhra before leaving for Australia late last year, Laxman, on return, struck centuries against Punjab and Railways. The two centuries in this match have taken his tally to 16 overall in the national championship.

Scoreboard

Hyderabad (1st innings) 291

Uttar Pradesh (1st innings) 362

Hyderabad (2nd innings): Nand Kishore lbw Pandey 93
D. Manohar c Raza b Mishra 14
V.V.S. Laxman not out 177
V. Pratap lbw Zaid 10
D. Vinay Kumar c P. Yadav b Srivastava 48
P. Satwalkar c Shukla b Pandey 8
N.P. Singh not out 2.
Extras (b-17, lb-8, w-4) 29.
Total (for five in 98 overs) 381.
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-209, 3-240, 4-349, 5-373.
Bowling: A. Zaidi 27-10-50-1; S. Srivastava 22-4-92-1; R. Mishra 11-1-53-1; G. Pandey 15-3-62-2; M. Raza 13-0-56-0; M.Kaif 5-0-19-0; R. Shamshad 5-0-24-0.

Uttar Pradesh (2nd innings): M. Saif batting 16, J. Yadav batting 18.
Extras (nb 4) 4.
Total (for no loss) 38.
Bowling: N.P. Singh 4-1-6-0; P. Satwalkar 6-2-12-0; Kanwaljeet Singh 7-2-14-0; V Raju 4-3-6-0.

Punjab skipper Vikram Rathore hit a brilliant sheet-anchor 127. But it doesn't seem that his resilient 505-minute knock will save Punjab from defeat against Tamil Nadu.

The hosts, chasing 164 to set up a Ranji Trophy semi-final against Bombay, were 30 for one at draw of stumps on Sunday, the penultimate of the match at the MA Chidambaram stadium, Madaras, with the prolific Tamil Nadu southpaw Shreedharan Sriram having one of his rare failures, being out for just 13.

Scoreboard

Punjab (1st innings): 258

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 461

Punjab (2nd innings): Vikram Rathore c Gokulakrishnan b S Mahesh 127
Reetinder Singh Sodhi c Reuben Paul b S.Mahesh 89
Harminder Jugnu run out 0
Pankaj Dharmani c Reuben Paul b Kumaran 15
Yuvraj Singh b Badani b Gokulkrishnan 24
Dinesh Mongia c Reuben Paul b Hemang Badani 35
Sanjay Kumar b Sriram 0
Sandeep Sharma not out 51
Sarandeep Singh c Reuben Paul b Rajath Bhatia 13
Harbhajan Singh c Kumaran b Rajat Bhatia 0
R.P. Singh c Reuben Paul b Rajat Bhatia 0
Extras (b 2, lb 6, nb 4)12.
Total 366.
Fall of wickets: 1-126, 2-126, 3-156, 4-197, 5-261, 6-278, 7-333, 8-362, 9-364, 10-366.
Bowling: T. Kumaran 21-3-75-1; S. Mahesh 18-1-59-2; D.J. Gokulakrishnan 15-2-49-1; Aashish Kapoor 26-4-75-0; Rajat Bhatia 8-0-18-3; S. Sriram 18-2-46-1; Hemang Badani 11-4-36-1.

Tamil Nadu (2nd innings): S Sriram c Harminder Jugnu b RP Singh 13
S Ramesh batting 11
Hemang K Badani batting 4.
Extras (nb-2) 2.
Total (for one wicket) 30.
Fall of wicket: 1- 22
Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 2-0-11-0, R P Singh 4-0-10-1, Harbhajan Singh 5-3-8-0, Reetinder Singh Sodhi 2-1-1-0.