Young left-handed batman Bavanaka Sandeep scored a brilliant double century to help Hyderabad post a mammoth 580 for nine declared on day two of their Group C Ranji Trophy encounter against Services here.
Resuming on 303 for seven at the MCA's Bandra Kurla complex ground, Sandeep and another left-handed batsman C V Milind, who also hit a blistering 136, made the Services bowlers to toil hard as they added over 120 runs at a brisk pace till lunch.
Sandeep, who resumed at his overnight score of 83, swiftly moved to 90s. He was lucky when he edged on 95, but the ball went through the wicket-keeper Nakul Verma and the first slip. He eventually remained unbeaten on 203.
Milind, on the other hand, got two 'lives' when he was dropped at the first slip on 61 and 62.
The duo paced their innings well. They complemented each other by taking quick singles and also hitting the bad balls to boundaries.
The two set batsmen took the bowlers to task, playing a variety of shots, including back-foot punches and late cuts, to stitch a 267-run-stand for the eighth wicket, on a wicket where the ball was nicely coming on the bat.
Unlike yesterday when Services came back into the game with quick wickets after lunch and crippled the Hyderabad middle order, their pacers as well as spinners had little success on Monday.
Milind brought up his ton with a towering six over long-on. He made 136 off 208 balls with 18 boundaries and three sixes before being caught by Vikas Hathwala at short-fine leg off Aanshul Gupta.
Sandeep completed his double century with a couple of boundaries a little after tea. His marathon innings knock was punctuated with 22 fours and three sixes.
Immediately after Md Siraj was trapped leg before the wicket by medium pacer Raushan Raj, to claim his fifth wicket, Hyderabad declared their innings.
In reply, Services made 77 for no loss in 20 overs. Their opener Aanshul Gupta retired hurt on nine.
At stumps Nakul Verma (34) and Ravi Chauhan (23) were at the crease as the side trailed by 503 runs.
Goa in trouble
Seamer Rituraj Singh claimed a career-best 7/42 but Goa's batsmen let him down with a lacklustre effort as they trailed Kerala by 173 runs with four wickets in hand in their Ranji Trophy group C cricket fixture at Brabourne Stadium. Singh (7/42) added six more to his overnight tally and returned with 14 maidens from his 27 overs to bring Kerala's downfall from being 290/2 losing last five wickets for eight runs.
In reply, Goa were 169/6 with V Vinod Kumar (3/33) rocking their middle-order with two wickets in three balls. Sanju Samson edged Singh behind the stumps to become the first victim of the day in the third over before Saurabh Bandekar (2/77) joined him at the other end.
Elsewhere, left-hander Sudip Chatterjee battled hamstring problems to score a gutsy century as Bengal posted a decent first innings score of 337 against Tamil Nadu in a group A encounter. At stumps, Tamil Nadu were 60 for 1 having lost opener MS Washington Sundar (4), bowled by Ashoke Dinda.
Bengal started the day at 190 for 3 and left-hander Agniv Pan (59) was bowled by Thangarasu Natarajan with the second new ball in the fifth over of the day.