Delhi got an early breakthrough in the morning when young medium-pacer Amit Bhandari had opener Arvind Shetty caught at second slip. But after that, VVS Laxman and Nanda Kishore toyed with the Delhi attack.

The second wicket had realised 70 runs when Laxman returned to the pavilion, retired hurt. On 43, Laxman square-drove Sanghvi and while going for the third run, experienced severe pain in the back. ``He will bat tomorrow,'' said coach ML Jaisimha.

In-form Sridhar continued his brilliant run. Delhi skipper Vijay Dahiya was clearly missing an experienced bowler, as Hyderabad piled on 106 between lunch and tea.

Nanda Kishore completed his fourthRanji Trophy hundred and the second of the season when he turned Sanghvi to the mid-wicket boundary. The batsman fell in the closing stages of the day's play when he edged debutant off-spinner Harinder Choudhury to slip.

Scoreboard

Hyderabad (1st innings): Arvind Shetty c Malhotra b Bhandari 4, VVS Laxman (retired hurt) 43, A Nanda Kishore c Malhotra b Choudhury 108, MV Sridhar lbw Sanghvi 94, Vanka Pratap batting 2, D Vinay Kumar batting 3; Extras (b3, lb2, nb11): 16. Total (for 3 wkts in 90 overs): 270.

Fall Of Wickets: 1-9, 2-251, 3-265.

Bowling: Nehra 15-4-51-0; Bhandari 10-4-35-1; Malhotra 1-0-4-0; Sanghvi 33-8-75-1; Angoorla 13-3-51-0; Choudhury 18-4-49-1.

Sidhu props Punjab

AMRITSAR: Veteran opener Navjot Sidhu struck a valuable 124 and raised 94 runs for the fourth wicket with Dinesh Mongia (39) as Punjab struggled to 251 for eight on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Tamil Nadu here today.

Medium-pacers S Mahesh (4-62) and TKumaran (3-72) struck vital blows as Punjab batsmen fell at regular intervals, after Punjab won the toss and chose to bat first.

Punjab (1st innings): Vikram Rathour b Mahesh 1, Navjot Sidhu lbw Mahesh 124, Sandeep Sharma lbw Mahesh 16, Pankaj Dharmani lbw Mahesh 7, Dinesh Mongia b Subbiah 39, Amit Sharma b Kumaran 3, Harminder Singh c Paul b Kumaran 8, Sandeep Singh c Paul b Kumaran 27, Navdeep Singh (batting) 0, Harbhajan Singh (batting) 10. Extras (lb1, b5, nb10): 16. Total (for eight wkts, 90 overs): 251.

Fall Of Wickets: 1-3, 2-33, 3-51, 4-145, 5-159, 6-172, 7-239, 8-239.

Bowling: Kumaran 19-3-72-3, Mahesh 19-5-62-4, Subbiah 24-7-49-1, Vasu 17-6-37-0, Sriram 11-3-30-0.