The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Andhra caught in a spin, concedes first innings lead

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Friday, Jan 06, 2006

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Andhra caught in a spin, concedes first innings lead

Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM: Andhra succumbed to the bowling of off-spinner Rajesh Sharma — who finished with a five-wicket haul — and left-arm spinner Dinesh Mongia to concede a 79-run first innings lead to Punjab in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here on Thursday.

Andhra made 237 in its first innings, and at close of third day's play, Punjab was 98 for three.

Overnight third-wicket pair of M.S.K. Prasad and captain Y. Venugopala Rao resumed the third day at 79 for two. The duo did a fine job, and with 185 for two on the scoreboard at lunch, it looked as if the host might overtake Punjab in the first innings. The partnership was worth 135 runs then.

Turning point

But a brilliant diving catch by Mongia on his follow through to remove Venu to put an end to the partnership nine runs later, which also triggered an Andhra collapse. Venu made 78 runs (10x4, 178b, 196 m). Rajesh Sharma bowled Rayudu soon after. Mongia added to the pressure by removing Gnaneswara Rao and Rajesh pushed Andhra into deeper trouble in the next over when he ended M.S.K. Prasad's long innings (72, 212 b, 331 m, 6x4) at the same total.

With 222 for six, Andhra almost lost the fight. Rajesh mopped up the tail, while Lov Ablish picked up a wicket.

UP on the brink of win

Uttar Pradesh was on the brink of victory over Hyderabad after dominating day three of the Ranji Trophy match in Lucknow on Thursday.

The host needs only 26 more runs for an outright victory, and only rain can deprive UP register its first victory after Hyderabad gave it the opportunity on the penultimate day.

The scores

Punjab — 1st innings: 316.

Andhra — 1st innings: T. Suman c R. Sharma b Mongia 10, M.S.K. Prasad c B. Sharma b Rajesh Sharma 72, K. Kumaraswamy lbw Gagandeep 15, Y. Venugopala Rao c and b D. Mongia 78, A.T. Rayudu b Rajesh Shrama 6, Y. Gnaneswara Rao lbw b Mongia 12, K.S. Shahabuddin lbw R. Sharma 1, Md. Faiq c R. Ricky b R. Sharma 6, Y. Lakshman Kishore lbw R. Sharma 3, M.N. Vikram Varma b Ablish 1, D. Kalyan Krishna (not out) 2. Extras (b-7, lb-13, nb-11) 31. Total (all out, in 95.4 overs) 237.

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-50, 3-196, 4-204, 5-222, 6-222, 7-223, 8-230, 9-235.

Punjab bowling: Gagandeep 15-6-28-1, Ablish 20.4-4-44-1, Mongia 26-5-49-3, Rajesh 20-3-61-5, Bipul 6-1-14-0, Malhotra 8-3-21-0.

Punjab — 2nd innings: R. Ricky (run out) 31, R.S. Sodhi (batting) 38, D. Mongia st. M.S.K. Prasad b Faiq 22, I. Malhotra st. M.S.K. Prasad b Lakshman Kishore 1, P. Dharmani (batting) 1. Extras (lb-1, w-4) 5. Total (in 33 overs, for three wickets) 98.

Fall of wickets: 1-53, 2-94, 3-95.

Andhra bowling: Shahabuddin 3-0-11-0, Krishna 1-0-6-0, Kishore 12-1-25-1, Faiq 10-1-21-1, Varma 7-0-34-0.

Other scores: Elite group

At Ahmedabad: Gujarat 200 and 190 for eight in 74.5 overs (Niraj Patel 72, Ramesh Powar five for 49) vs. Mumbai 207 in 97 overs (Amol Muzumdar 64, J. Makla four for 25).

At Bangalore: Karnataka 283 and 196 for five in 75 overs (Sujith Somasunder 54, Thilak Naidu 44 batting) vs. Delhi 258 in 91.3 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 82, Aakash Chopra 84, Virender Sehwag 56, Sunil Joshi six for 73).

At New Delhi: Maharashtra 237 and 91 for three in 47 overs vs. Railways 140 in 71.4 overs (Munaf Patel six for 50)

At Kolkata: Tamil Nadu 218 and 423 for seven decl. in 105 overs (S. Sriram 96, Hemang Badani 157 not out, K. Vasudevadas 62) vs. Bengal 145 and 109 for three in 24.1 overs.

At New Delhi: Baroda 449 for four decl. in 115 overs (Pinal Shah 217 not out, Rakesh Solanki 107, Jacob Martin 53 not out) vs. Services 194 for three in 59.2 overs (M.P. Reddy 51, Jasvir Singh 63 batting).

At Lucknow: Hyderabad 142 and 227 in 77.4 overs (Arjun Yadav 49, Piyush Chawla five for 37) vs. Uttar Pradesh 340 and four for no loss.

Plate group:

Tripura 163 and 203 bt Himachal Pradesh 80 and 156 in 89.2 overs (Rajib Nayyar 48, Nishant Verma 41, Vineet Jain seven for 29).

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