Sport - Cricket

Andhra bowled out for 208

NEW DELHI: Andhra batsmen let the team down as the visitor had a weak start to its Ranji Trophy Super League tie against Railways at the Karnail Singh Stadium here on Sunday.

On the opening day, Andhra could not justify its decision to bat first as the side lost nine wickets to spinners and managed only 208 runs in its first innings, thanks to dogged half-centuries by skipper Y. Gnaneswar Rao (50, 95 balls, 5x4s, 1x6) and M. Suresh (51 not out, 77 balls, 5x4s, 1x6).

After the openers saw off the new ball, rookie leg-break bowler Karan Sharma exhibited good control over flight and length to remove them and claimed two more wickets to return his career-best figures of four for 37.

Experienced left-arm spinner Murali Kartik scalped three Andhra batsmen and would have been happier conceding lesser number of runs.

Knocks by Rao and Suresh came at crucial times for Andhra. Rao switched gears as per the need and played some good shots. Coming to bat at No. 8, the left-handed Suresh helped his team get past the 200-run mark.

He protected the lower order batsmen and built partnerships of 22 and 21 runs for the ninth and 10th wickets respectively. Suresh’s effort can prove decisive in the next three days if the Andhra bowlers prove to be as effective as their rivals.

Andhra coach M.V. Narasimha Rao was disappointed with his team’s below-par batting.

“The middle order played some rash shots though there were a couple of doubtful decisions. We were eyeing a score of 350-400,” he said.

New ball bowler D. Kalyankrishna, however, provided a flicker of hope for Andhra as he claimed opposition skipper Sanjay Bangar for a duck — a decision which did not go down well with the Railways camp at all.

The scores: Andhra – 1st innings: Hemal Watekar b K. Sharma 13, N. Prasad Reddy c M. Kartik b. K. Sharma 18, A.S.K. Verma c M. Tamhane b M. Kartik 24, B. Sumanth lbw K. Parida 19, Y. Gnaneswar Rao lbw K. Sharma 50, A.G. Pradeep b K. Parida 3, V. Manoj Sai c Bangar b M. Kartik 17, M. Suresh (not out) 51, D. Kalyankrishna c K. Parida b K. Sharma 0, P. Vijay Kumar c. S. Sanyal b M. Kartik 0, A. Veera Babu b Anureet Singh 0, Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-7) 13, Total (all out in 78.1 overs) 208.

Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-40, 3-81, 4-84, 5-104, 6-138, 7-163, 8-165, 9-187.

Railways bowling: Anureet Singh 13.1-5-31-1, Sanjay Bangar 6-3-9-0, Karan Sharma 18-4-37-4, Sanjib Sanyal 3-1-5-0, Kulamani Parida 15-5-48-2, Murali Kartik 23-4-72-3.

Railways – 1st innings: Milind Tamhane (batting) 6, Sanjay Bangar lbw D. Kalyankrishna 0, Karan Sharma (batting) 0, Extras (nb-2) 2, Total (for one wicket in 10 overs) 8.

Fall of wicket: 1-1.

Andhra bowling: D. Kalyankrishna 5-4-1-1, P. Vijaykumar 4-2-7-0, M. Suresh 1-1-0-0.

Other scores:

At Valsad: Gujarat 310 for seven (Parthiv Patel 55, Bhavik Thaker 121) vs Delhi.

At Bangalore: Baroda 169 (R.K. Solanki 53, Sunil Raju four for 30) vs Karnataka 63 for three.

At Bhubaneswar: Punjab 60 (Basanth Mohanty seven for 27) vs Orissa 148 for five (N. Behera 74, S. Biswal 54, Gangandeep Singh four for 18).

At Rajkot: Saurashtra 285 for one (Chirag Pathak 145 batting, Bhushan Chauhan 104) vs Mumbai.

At Kanpur: Maharashtra 221 (H. Khadiwale 56, Kedar Jadhav 93 not out) vs Uttar Pradesh 86 for one (S.S. Shukla 45 batting).

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