Sport - Cricket

Jayachandra pegs Andhra back

CUTTACK: Pinniti Jayachandra has always been a bits-and-pieces player. Playing his 60th Ranji Trophy match for Orissa, the right-handed allrounder became the team’s wrecker-in-chief with a career best figures of six for 37 against Andhra on the opening day of the four-day Elite group B match at the Barabati Stadium here on Friday.

His stupendous showing enabled Orissa restrict Andhra to 179 in the first innings and take control of the game. At close, Orissa was on 21 for no loss. Openers Bikash Swarup Pati and Siba Sundar Das were undefeated on five and 10 respectively.

If he was the hero of the day, the pitch turned out to be the villain. Andhra skipper M.S.K. Prasad had no hesitation to bat first on winning the toss and his batsmen ran into trouble right away.

Wily Debasis Mohanty, a yard or two slower in pace, made the ball move appreciably to harass both the openers, especially Hemal Watekar, who was hit on the bridge of the nose in the last match. Watekar should have gone in the first over had Bikash Swarup Pati judged the flick which hit the fielder’s chest and fell to the ground.

The first over was an indicator for the character of the pitch for rest of the day, with low bounce and slow pace. Mohanty had Watekar in his second over, catching the batsman plumb in front, playing back to an in-swinger.

It was a clear sign that playing forward was the only solution on this pitch but the lesson was not learnt. A. Satya Kumar Varma fell to Mohanty in the fifth over, playing back to an away-going delivery and was taken behind.

Pratap Reddy, the other opener and captain Prasad came together to play some sensibile cricket to add 45 runs for the third wicket. Jayachandra came on from the pavilion end to bowl Prasad (21) off the pads and had Reddy taken low at first slip in successive overs to plunge Andhra deep into trouble.

A.G. Pradeep was run out in a mixup. Andhra was rocked by the dismissal of M. Suresh when wicketkeeper Haladhar Das took a brilliant one-handed catch in front of the first slip off Jayachandra to leave Andhra gasping at 65 for six at lunch.

Andhra recovered partially from these setbacks thanks to left-handed G. Shankara Rao and Y. Gyaneswara Rao. The two put on 62 valuable runs for the seventh wicket. Shankara Rao, who played some superb square cuts and back-foot drives, should have been taken by the ’keeper but was grassed when on 30 off off-spinner Niranjan Behera.

The partnership began to grow to the discomfort of Orissa when Gyaneswara Rao played a rash shot off Behera and was taken at mid-off for 28. Shankara Rao and Mohammad Faiq stitched together another small but very useful partnership of 49 runs and saw the team to 142 for seven at tea.

Orissa captain Pravanjan Mullick recalled Jayachandra to the attack and the compactly built bowler produced another breakthrough catching Faiq (13) and D. Kalyanakrishna (0) leg before and was on a hat-trick when P. Vijay Kumar negotiated the yorker successfully.

Shankara Rao was the last to fall taken at long-off by R.R. Das off Jayachandra for a well made 73 (141b, 10x4, 1x6).

The scores: Andhra — 1st innings: H. Watekar lbw b Mohanty 2, L.N.P. Reddy c S.S. Das b Jayachandra 23, A.S.K. Varma c H. Das b Mohanty 1, M.S.K . Prasad b Jayachandra 21, Y.G. Rao c Pati b Behera 28, A.G. Pradeep run out 1, M. Suresh c H. Das b Jayachandra 1, G.S. Rao c R.R. Das b Jayachandra 73, Md. Faiq lbw b Jayachandra 13, D. Kalyankrishna lbw b Jayachandra 0, P. Vijay Kumar (not out) 0, Extras (b-3, lb-6, nb-7) 16; Total (in 79.3overs): 179.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-7, 3-52, 4-53, 5-63, 6-65, 7-127, 8-176, 9-176.

Orissa bowling: D. Mohanty 15-3-34-2, S. Khatua 12-3-33-0, P. Das 12-0-37-0, P. Jayachandra 12.3-1-37-6, N. Behera 21-9-25-1, P. Mullick 7-4-4-0.

Orissa — 1st innings: B.S. Pati 5, S.S. Das 10, Extras (b-6); Total (for no loss in eight overs): 21.

Andhra bowling: Kalyankrishna 2-1-6-0, P. Vijay Kumar 3-0-9-0, G.S. Rao 2-2-0-0, Md. Faiq 1-1-0-0.

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