Hyderabad were struggling at 95 for four in reply to Tamil Nadu's first innings total of 404 at stumps on the second day of their South Zone Ranji Trophy league match at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Tuesday.

Medium pacer S Mahesh was chiefly responsible for Hyderabad being up against it. After Gokulkrishna removed Nandakishore for seven at 22 in the tenth over, Mahesh struck thrice in quick succession to leave Hyderabad gasping for breath. At 55, he bowled D Vinay Kumar for 15. Two overs later, with the total on 62, he bowled Manohar for 34. And in his next over, Mahesh had Vanka Pratap caught by Madanagopal for two at 64.

Skipper Md Azharuddin, who had come in at the fall of the second wicket and the experienced MV Sridhar however stemmed the rot and by close had added 31 runs off 6.5 overs. At stumps Azharuddin was batting with 24 with four hits to the fence. But Mahesh had taken the afternoon honours by finishing with three for 32 from 14 overs.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu resuming at 252 for four did well to run up a total of 404. Overnight not out batsmen S Sriram and Robin Singh took the score to 282 before the skipper was leg before to NP Singh for 29. In the same over NP Singh bowled Vasanth Saravanan for 4. The left handed Sriram was finally seventh out at 309, caught by Sridhar off NP Singh. Sriram batted 402 minutes for his 121. He faced 305 balls and hit eleven of them to the ropes. Reuben Paul (17) fell in the next over. But the innings was kept going by an unexpected ninth wicket partnership of 89 runs from 26.4 overs between S Mahesh and J Gokulakrishnan, each of whom scored 46. While Gokulakrishnan faced 85 balls and hit five fours, Mahesh faced 80 balls and hit four fours and two sixes. Medium pacer NP Singh was the pick of the bowlers and he was rewarded with five wickets for 100 off 29 overs.

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