Date:26/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/26/stories/2008112653550200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

A peep into history of Andhra cricket

Staff Reporter

Four-day Ranji trophy match to begin on November 29

ACA played its first match in the year 1953
Match on Nov. 29 is 247th for Andhra in Ranji

VIJAYAWADA: The four-day Andhra-Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy match that gets under way on November 29 at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium will be the 247th match for Andhra team in the Ranji championship ever since the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) played its first match in 1953.

Andhra and Tamil Nadu will be playing against each other for the 47th time in the Ranji championship.

Great find

“The Krishna District Cricket Association has so far conducted 23 Ranji matches against various teams. Only one match was held at Machilipatnam against Hyderabad in 1982-83.

It was in this match that Mohammad Azharuddin came into limelight by scoring hundreds in both the innings and later went on to play for the country,” points out ACA statistician G. Phani.

Besides Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium, two other venues in the city played host to Ranji matches. “Swaraj Maidan hosted the Andhra – Mysore match in 1967-68, in which Gundappa Vishwanath made his debut and piled up 230. The Andhra Loyola College ground also hosted a match against Kerala in 1968-69,” Mr. Phani reveals.

In the city, the Andhra team played six times each against Karnataka (including the one against the Mysore team, which was later merged with Karnataka team) and Kerala, and three times each against Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad. A match each was played against Goa, Indian Railways, Mumbai and Delhi, which were all in the stadium.

Scoring batsmen

The batsmen who scored a hundred for Andhra in the Ranji matches held at Vijayawada and Machilipatnam are S. Satya Dev (108 against Kerala), B. Mahendra Kumar (109 against Madras), Jugal Kishore Ghia (106 against Karnataka), Amit Pathak (138 against Karnataka and 101 against Kerala), Y. Venugopala Rao (115 against Kerala) and I. Srinivas (116 against Kerala).

Among bowlers, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, K.S. Bhaskara Rama Murthy, K. Chakradhara Rao, G.V.V. Gopala Raju and Md. Faiq took five or more wickets, Mr. Phani details.