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Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006

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Andhra lets Uttar Pradesh off the hook

Sports Reporter

An unbeaten 89-run partnership between Gyanendra Pandey and Amir Khan bailed out U.P.

ANANTAPUR: Andhra let Uttar Pradesh off the hook as the host missed seven chances, including a run-out, enabling the visitor reach 217 for five, at the end of the first day of the Elite Group B Ranji match here on Tuesday.

An unbeaten 89-run sixth-wicket partnership between Gyanendra Pandey (57 batting, 160b, 4x4, 2x6) and Amir Khan (37 batting, 122b, 150m, 4x4) bailed U.P. out, which was at 128 for five before tea.

Andhra failed to capitalise on the early breakthroughs by flooring even regulation catches, much to the dismay of its coach. Taking advantage of the sloppiness, Gyanendra, who was dropped twice by Israel Raju and Shabuddin, smashed two huge sixes off Venugopala Rao and along with Amir Khan took his team to a position of safety.

Early setbacks

Earlier, U.P. opting to bat lost openers Shivakanth Shukla and Jyothi Yadav with just 33 runs on the board. But, skipper Mohd. Kaif (33) and Suresh Raina (42) took the fight to the Andhra camp with some exquisite strokes much to the delight of the 3000-odd spectators. The pair put on 78 runs for the third wicket.

U.P. suffered a double setback after lunch as Andhra removed both Kaif and Rania in successive overs. Kaif played on to a Raju delivery, while Rania poked at an outgoing ball from Kalyan only to be caught in the slip cordon.

After the departure of Kaif and Rania, who were scoring at a rate of 3.5 per over, the run rate dipped drastically as Pandey and Amir played with caution. However, a couple of flamboyant strokes by Pandey helped his team cross the 200-mark before stumps.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: S. Shukla c Prasad b Raju 8, J. Yadav c Gnaneswara b Kalyan 20, M. Kaif b Raju 33, S. Raina c Gnaneswara b Kalyan 42, R. Shamshad c Prasad b Shabuddin 6, Gyanendra (batting) 57, Amir (batting) 37. Extras (b-1, lb-7, w-6): 14. Total (for five wkts. in 90 overs): 217.

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-33, 3-111, 4-112, 5-128.

Andhra bowling: Shabuddin 19-7-26-1, Kalyan 24-6-63-2, Raju 19-5-49-2, Gnaneswara 6-1-19-0, Faiq 7-0-15-0, Venugopala 15-4-37-0.

Other scores: Elite group:

At Mumbai: Maharashtra 213 in 78.1 overs (Sairaj Bahutule 45 not out, R.P. Verma four for 63) vs. Mumbai 20 for two in nine overs.

At Ahmedabad: Karnataka 163 in 57.1 overs (B. Chipli 76, Stuart Binny 45, Siddharth Trivedi four for 49, Hitesh Majumdar four for 34) vs. Gujarat six for no loss in four overs.

At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 261 for two in 90 overs (S. Sriram 43, S. Badrinath 113 batting, Hemang Badani 91 batting) vs. Delhi.

At Kolkata: Railways 191 for five in 91 overs (Vineet Saxena 65) vs. Bengal.At New Delhi: Services 226 for five in 90 overs (S. Upadhaya 92, Sarabjit Singh 78 batting) vs. Haryana.

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