Kabir Ali wicketless; Anirudh, Raidu shine for Hyderabad

Jaipur, Dec 1: Rajasthan's foreign recruit Kabir Ali failed to shine as Hyderabad skipper Anirudh Singh and AT Raidu hit fine half centuries to reach 246 for five at the close on the first day of their four-day Ranji Trophy Elite group B match here today.

D Vinay and Khalil were batting at eight and one run respectively at the draw of stumps.

Anirudh (87, 225 balls, 10x4, 1x6) and Raidu (62, 84 balls, 8X4, 2x6) batted sensibly putting on 99 runs for the third wicket for Hyderabad who had won the toss and elected to bat. Left arm spinner Mohd Aslam bowled extremely well for the home team taking three for 64 while the remaining two wickets were shared by skipper Ajay Jadeja and Rahul Kanwat.

None of Rajasthan medium pacers could make any impact against Hyderabad batsmen.

Chopra's name came up for discussion in yesterday's selection committee meeting but fellow Delhi opener Gambhir got the nod in the end. Commenting on today's proceedings, Chopra said, ''We were in a very strong position before Praveen came up with a late burst and to be honest, we can't dictate terms tomorrow. Now the idea would be to go tomorrow and get as many runs as possible.'' Asked how he felt after he was dropped from Team India, Chopra was candid enought to admit, ''Like every other human being, I too felt bad after being dropped. I have been trying too hard in the last two season but this time I'm more relaxed and the result is showing,'' he added.

Scoreboard: Delhi 1st innings Aakash Chopra not out 128 Shikhar Dhawan c Shukla b Shalabh Srivastava 6 Mayank Tehlan lbw b Praveen Kumar 25 Mithun Manhas b Praveen Kumar 7 Viraat Kohil run out 42 Rajat Bhatia b Praveen Kumar 32 Vijay Dahiya lbw b Praveen Kumar 0 Chetanya Nanda not out 0 Extras (LB-2, W-1, NB-14) 17 Total (For 6 wickets in 89 overs) 257 Fall of wickets: 1/10 2/71 3/79 4/163 5/245 6/245 Bowling: RP Singh 21-4-72-0 Shalabh Srivastava 15-2-51-1 Piyush Chawla 24-4-64-0 Praveen Kumar 25-5-53-4 Shivkant Shukla 4-1-15-0

UNI