Dalal wallops FCI attack

Hyderabad: A terrific unbeaten double century by Hiten Dalal put Air India in the driver’s seat in the truncated second day proceedings of their round 3 match of the All India Coromandel King Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup invitation cricket tournament against FCI at the DMRC-I ground here on Monday.

Sending the hapless bowlers on a leather hunt, Dalal’s blitzkrieg came from a mere 214 balls and comprised of 19 hits to the ropes and seven majestic heaves over the ropes. Giving him admirable support was Manvinder Bisla, who struck 59 in his 116-ball stay in the middle. At close of play, Air India was enjoying a comfortable 115 runs lead with six wickets in hand.

In other matches, Hyderabad XI was also in a position of strength. After being all out for 347, the host sent six MRF batsmen to the pavilion with just 146 runs on the board. Meanwhile, Hyderabad President XI was 173 for the loss of two wickets in reply to India Cements formidable 413 for four wickets in their 90 overs. ONGC was 172 for two wickets against Sri Lanka’s score of 249.

Brief scores: Hyderabad XI 347 (GH Vihari 127, B Yatin Reddy 74, Mehdi Hasan 33no, Sunil Sam 4/90, Nathu Singh 4/44, Washington Sunder 2/108) vs MRF 146/6 in 42 overs (Vasudeva Das 37, Venugopal Rao 34no, Sudeep Tyagi 3/30, Mehdi Hasan 2/35); FCI 251 vs Air India 366/4 in 78 overs (Manvinder Bisla 59, Hiten Dalal 204no, Pulkit Naraz 2/135); India Cements 413/4 (Dinesh Karthik 61, Baba Aparajith 50, Baba Inderjith 48, AM Rajendra 3/124) vs Hyderabad President XI 173/2 in 55 overs (Danny Derek Prince 41, B Anirudh 56no, Himalay Agarwal 52no); Sri Lanka 249 (Navdeep Saini 2/35, S Bhati 2/75, Resham Sharma 3/46, Mohd Saif 3/30) vs ONGC 172/2 in 46 overs (Tanmay Srivastav 78no, Nitesh Rana 55no).