JAIPUR: After Rajasthan’s Mahipal Lomror and Shubham Garhwal on the previous day, another left-hand batsman, Hyderabad’s Kodimela Himateja, brought his hundred on the final day of their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Saturday. His unbeaten 101 off 176 balls had no impact on the game’s outcome that was almost decided on the Day Two, but his stay at the crease was fruitful from the individual perspective.
Continuing his good form, 23-year-old Himateja was able to convert the score to register his maiden First Class century in four matches he has played so far.
The result looked out of question as the game progressed on the fourth day after the visitors resumed at the overnight score of 36/0. Hyderabad openers Tanmay Agarwal (79 off 126 balls) and Abhirath Reddy (46 off 37 balls) shared a partnership of 56 runs and later the centurion of the day made hay on the wicket which still looked good for batting as the visitors declared on 279/3.
The match ended after 58.2 overs and courtesy their first innings lead of 15 runs, they finished the match with three points while Hyderabad had to contend with a solitary point. With this result, Rajasthan stay at the fourth spot with 13 points while Hyderabad slipped from the fifth position to the sixth with eight points.
Hyderabad’s head coach Vineet Saxena pointed out that the match slipped from their hands in the last session of the third day. “The way we bowled in the last session on Day Three let the lead slip away from us. As a batting unit we had partnerships at every wicket and a hundred by Rahul Radesh. But I would have loved to see bigger scores from other batsmen as well,” the head coach said.
Brief score: Hyderabad 410 all out in 144 overs & 279/3 declared in 65.2 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 79, Abhirath Reddy 46; Kodimela Himateja 101 not out; Arafat Khan 1-18, Aniket Choudhary 1-18, Ajay Kookna 1-86)
