Left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan spent the entire evening sitting with an ice-pack over his bowling shoulder, while fellow quick Parwinder Awana could feel the stiffness creeping up his back. Ashish Nehra had spent most of the day battling doubts as to whether or not to bowl another spell after a slight niggle in his left hamstring, and Delhi’s sloppiness on the field only increased the bowlers’ workload. Rajat Bhatia, in frustration, even tried to bowl some off-breaks even as Chetanya Nanda bowled a long, futile spell from one end.

The flat wicket, the lightening quick outfield and the incessant sound of the ball hitting bat infuriated a Delhi team who spent the entire 90 overs on Monday on the field under the glaring sun.

Hyderabad’s Anoop Pai and Abhinav Kumar stood guard on the barren 22-yard patch for a fifth-wicket partnership that lasted four hours and 44 minutes and was worth 134 runs. The two defended stoutly and, every once in a while as if to break the monotony, threw in some attacking cover-drives and some competent cuts and pulls.

Abhinav was dismissed 27 deliveries before the scheduled close of play for a well-crafted 76 but Pai, who came in at number four, dropped anchor with his third century. The left-handed batsman was on 102 as Hyderabad went to stumps on Day One at 247/5.

Pai latched on to anything that was pitched up, but also chose well which deliveries to go after. He completed his half-century from 86 balls with seven boundaries, effectively using the pace of the fast bowlers. Pai added three more boundaries in his second set of fifty runs — his century came in 229 balls — as he decided to play the waiting game, emphasising on rotating the strike.

... contd.