Tripura score 441, reduce HP to 111 for 5 on day two

Nadaun: Tripura posted a massive 441 in their first innings and then reduced Himachal Pradesh to 111 for five to give the visitors an overwhelming upper hand on the second day of their Group C Ranji Trophy match here on Sunday.

Having started the day on 325 for four, Tripura eventually folded for 440-plus runs. In reply, HP were struggling when the stumps were drawn with Aatish Bhalaik unbeaten on 28 and Rishi Dhawan batting on 16. Although Tripura`s overnight batsmen -- Ajay Ratra and Abhijit Dey -- fell early on the day, Manisankar Murasingh (29), Tushar Saha (28) and Rana Dutta (20) chipped in valuable runs to take the team`s total past 400-run mark. While Ratra, after resuming on 55, could add just one more run to his yesterday`s score, getting dismissed for 101-ball 56, Dey added 19 runs to his overnight total before he fell for 45. Yesterday, Subhrajit Roy had slammed an aggressive 111, while S Abbas Ali hit 83. For HP, Rishi Dhawan finished with four for 114. HP got off to a poor start in their first innings as Murasingh dismissed both the openers -- Aakash Chopra (1) and Prashant Chopra (6) -- in consecutive overs. Though Varun Sharma (24) and Paras Dogra (23) managed to steady the boat for a while, Rana Dutta struck hard to dismiss the latter and then added new batsman, Amit Kumar`s wicket to his kitty in the same over to leave the hosts reeling at 49 for four. Varun was the last man to get out on the day today with Sanjay Majumder taking his wicket. Brief scores: Tripura 1st inngs: 441 all out in 129 overs (Ajay Ratra 56, Abhijit Dey 45; Rishi Dhawan 4/114). HP 1st inngs: 111 for 5 in 37 overs (Varun Sharma 24; Rana Dutta 2/25, Manisankar Murasingh 2/36). PTI