Nalini Reddy and Niranjan picked up four wickets each to help Hyderabad bowl out Rajasthan for 254 on the opening day of the quarter-final match of the Vijay Merchant Trophy (under-16) at the Deshbandhu Park, Calcutta on Thursday.

Hyderabad won the toss and asked Rajasthan to have a bat first. Arvind Mann and Ambar Bhargava gave Rajasthan a good start adding 62 runs for the first wicket in 19 overs. Mann was the first to be dismissed, when he fell to Nalin Reddi after making 34 runs with the help of six boundaries. Gagan Tanwar scratched around for 19 balls and his misery was put to an end by Nasir Ali who had him leg before for non score. Sanjay Bharti made nine before becoming Nalin Reddi's second victim to leave Rajasthan at 94/3. Sanjay Bharti made 16 before he was caught by Prasant Peter off Nalin Reddi. Meanwhile, Bhargava went to complete a patient half century and was dismissed on 62 made of 171 balls. Bhargava's innings was decorated with nine hits to the fence. Hyderabad were 149/5 at that stage.

Vivek Yadav made a quickfire 36 off just 46 balls smashing the ball for six boundaries and a six before being dismissed by Niranjan, who went on to take three more wickets to finish at 10-3-23-4. His other victims were Bhaskar Ranjan (0), Naresh Bhati (16) and Vibhor Mathur (13). Rasheed Khan struck five boundaries in his innings of 33 and became Nalin Reddi's fourth victim. Reddi bowled his heart out and had the analysis of 26.3-7-95-4, picking up crucial wickets. Rajasthan were bowled out in 83.3 overs. Hyderabad were two without loss in 2.4 overs as bad light stopped play for the day.

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