Ranji Trophy 2024-25: Tanmay’s unbeaten 137 gives Hyderabad strong start against Himachal Pradesh on Day 1

Ranji Trophy 2024-25: Tanmay’s unbeaten 137 gives Hyderabad strong start against Himachal Pradesh on Day 1

Tanmay Agarwal, despite a less fluent innings, proved his value with an unbeaten 137 off 272 balls (14 fours), guiding Hyderabad to a strong 291 for two against Himachal Pradesh on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium on Thursday.

Electing to bat, the home team was off to an impressive start with Tanmay and Abhirath Reddy (73, 132b, 7×4, 1×6) putting on 147.

Abhirath was the more confident batter of the two, playing some brilliant strokes like the upper-cut for six off pacer Divesh Sharma and then essaying an exquisite cover-drive and a leg-glance off left-arm spinner Akash Vashist.

At the other end, Tanmay was in a way lucky to survive the morning session, especially pacer Vaibhav Arora testing him with a teasing off-stump line which saw the batter edge close to the slip cordon quite a few times. But, importantly, he displayed remarkable resilience, weathering the early storm and ultimately anchoring the innings. He achieved a significant milestone, notching his 16th Ranji Trophy century in his 65th match and his third of the current season.

Unfortunately, Abhirath failed to convert yet another good start to a hundred as he misread a length ball from Vashist, which slipped past his defensive push to hit the stumps. This was his fourth fifty in what is also his debut season.

Later, Tanmay mentored the young wicketkeeper-batter Rahul Radesh (52, 111b, 7×4) and strung a 111-run stand for the second wicket which ensured Himachal had a forgetful outing on the first day.

Both pacer Vaibhav in the morning session and spinner Vashist were unlucky not to get a few more wickets, with the latter even getting spin and bounce occasionally.