Hyderabad, the defending champion of the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament, carried its strong form into the third fixture of the 2025 season against Madhya Pradesh.
Having won its first two matches, Hyderabad stamped its authority again on Tuesday by bundling MP out for 181 before reaching 155 for one in the remaining 33 overs of the opening day at the AM Jain College Ground in Chennai.
Tanmay Agarwal remained unbeaten on 85 off 121 balls with Rahul Radesh alongside him on 22 as Hyderabad finished the day just 26 runs behind MP’s total.
Opening the innings, Agarwal found the boundary off the first ball but played second fiddle to P. Nitish Reddy, who took up the aggressor’s role. With the amount of turn and bounce available, both Reddy and Agarwal trusted the reverse sweep over conventional defence and regularly used their feet to unsettle the spinners. The gaps around the field also allowed them to rotate strike with ease.
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MP finally found success when Reddy, looking to cut off-spinner Rohit Rajawat from the backfoot, was late into the shot and edged straight to a wide slip. Agarwal, though, held firm, mixing steady defence with timely boundaries to ensure Hyderabad suffered no further setbacks before stumps.
Earlier, despite electing to bat, MP was under pressure straightaway. Ravi Teja struck in the fifth over, bowling Saksham Purohit for 13. Pacer S. Nishanth, standing at 6’9”, extracted extra bounce that troubled the batters.
With left-handers Aryan Tiwari and Shubham Kushwah at the crease, captain Rahul Singh introduced off-spinner Rohit Rayudu. Aryan played positively for his 53, striking drives and pulls, while Kushwah dug in defensively for 25 off 97 balls. Their 71-run stand ended when Tanay Thyagarajan trapped Kushwah leg before, and Aryan followed soon after, miscuing an inside-out drive against Rayudu.
From there, the collapse continued. Thyagarajan and Aniketh Reddy removed Akhil Yadav and Madhav Tiwari early in the second session before Rayudu ran through the middle order. He had Anvesh Chawla stumped with a sharp turn, dismissed Atharva Mahajan with an edge behind, and bowled Vishnu Bhardwaj.
Mangesh Yadav counterattacked with 20 off 26 balls, striking a four and a six, but holed out to Aniketh. Rayudu completed his five-wicket haul as MP folded for 181 in 56.5 overs, leaving Hyderabad in command.
Published on Aug 26, 2025
