Hyderabad cave in meekly

Hyderabad: Despite chopping and changing of players, nothing seems to work for Hyderabad as they suffered another humiliating defeat, this time by an innings and 57 runs to table-toppers Saurashtra, inside two days in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Gymkhana ground here on Wednesday. This was Hyderabad's third defeat this season after their losses to Assam and Andhra before this. Hyderabad were bottom of the table with one point and with two matches against Maharashtra and Delhi remaining, they now stare at relegation. Though Hyderabad fared better in their second innings — they were all out for 191 runs — the first innings collapse for 79 runs proved to be their undoing. Saurashtra skipper and in-form left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat made early inroads and spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja mopped up the tail with his brilliant spell of 9.4-2-13-4 in the extended post-lunch session. Earlier, Saurashtra resumed at 250 for five and added another 77 runs to gain a handsome 248-run first innings lead. Though Sheldon Jackson (59) was dismissed by debutant medium pacer Mohammed Abrar with his first ball of the day. man of the match Jadeja made a quickfire 40 (44b, 4x5, 6x4) and ensured that Saurashtra did not bat again.Hyderabad left-arm spinner G Aniketh Reddy returned a career-best 7/95. His previous best was 4/61 against Vidarbha in 2020-21 in Uppal. Debutant T Santosh Goud, who took 27 balls to open his account, waged a lone battle for Hyderabad with 58 (125b, 4x4, 6x1). Azhar disappointed Mohammed Azaruddin said he was very disappointed with the team’s performance. “As a player, it’s disappointing to see Hyderabad performing so badly. But it’s an inexperienced side. . They are playing well in the nets. But failing to put up the same show in a match,” he added.Brief scores: Hyderabad 79 & & 191 in 46.4 overs (T Santosh Goud 58, Chandan Sahani 49, Bhavesh Seth 30, T Ravi Teja 20; Jaydev Unadkat 3/62, D A Jadeja 4/ 34, Yuvrajsinh Dodiya 2/76) lost to Saurashtra CA 327 in 68.3 overs (Harvik Desai 81, Chirag Jani 68, Sheldon Jackson 59, D A Jadeja 40; Aniketh Reddy 7/95).