The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Resolute show by Shabuddin, Varma

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Friday, Jan 13, 2006

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Resolute show by Shabuddin, Varma

Sports Reporter

ANANTAPUR: On a day of twist and turns, a resolute rear-guard action by K. S. Shabuddin (84, 89b, 122m, 15x4) and A.S.K. Varma (58, 106b, 142m, 9x4, 1x6) brought Andhra back into the game as it scored 292 for nine in the second innings at close of play on the penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group `B' match here on Wednesday.

UP restricted Andhra to 208 and gained 157-run lead. Following on, Andhra, thanks to the productive post tea session, overhauled the deficit, and is leading by 135 runs, with the last pair Kalyan Krishna (28 not out) and Israel Raju (3 not out) in the middle.

Shabuddin and Varma took the fight to the enemy camp with a whirlwind 114-run partnership for the seventh wicket. After dominating the first two sessions, UP bowlers were at the receiving end after tea, as Shabuddin, Varma and Faiq went on a rampage. They were merciless towards leg spinner Piyush Chawla, medium pacers Shamshad and Praveen Kumar (four for 81). The final session saw Andhra scoring as many as 142 runs.

Costly mistakes

Andhra's top order failed to learn from the mistakes and threw away the wickets playing in the air quite often. UP pace trio, with nagging line and length, bowled to a plan to unsettle the rival top order. They made the batsmen play and commit mistakes, which they did well at regular intervals.

Zaidi in his second over delivered a twin blow scalping M.S.K. Prasad and Gynaneswara Rao when Andhra's total was just 10. Andhra think-tank's ploy to send middle order batsmen Gynaneswara Rao as pinch-hitter backfired as Zaidi trapped him in the same over. Venu opened his account by hitting two boundaries — one piercing the cover and the other through mid-on off Praveen Kumar. However, an unwarranted uppish drive resulted in his exit in the same over. Rayudu (49) too failed to play to his potential by edging a Srivastsava delivery to wicket-keeper Amir Khan.

Earlier, resuming at 155 for six, Andhra's first innings ended after 73 minutes of play. The pick of the UP blowers was Praveen Kumar with five for 73.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: 365

Andhra — 1st innings: M.S.K. Prasad c Kaif b Praveen Kumar 19, L. N. Prasad Reddy c A. Khan b S. Srivastsava 13, B.B.K. Singh st A. Khan b P. Chawla 38, Venugopala Rao c P. Chawla b Zaidi 28, A. T Rayudu c G. Pandey b Praveen Kumar 20, Gnaneswara Rao c S. Shukla b Praveen Kumar 24, A.S.K. Varma c A. Khan b Praveen Kumar 7, K. S. Shabuddin c. P. Chawla b Praveen Kumar 9, Md Faiq (not out) 22, Kalyan Krishna c Kaif b P. Chawla 13, Israel Raju c Kaif b P. Chawla 0; Extras (lb-4, wd-2-, nb-9): 15. Total 208 in 69-1 overs.

Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-53, 3-93, 4-118, 5-127, 6-137, 7-158, 8-74, 9-198.

UP bowling: Zaidi 21-8-46-1, Srivastsava 15-2-42-1, Praveen 21-2-73-5, Chawla 12.1-2-43-3.

Andhra — 2nd innings: M.S.K. Prasad c P. Chawla b Zaidi 10, L. N. Prasad Reddy c S. Srivastsava b Praveen Kumar 13, Gnaneswara Rao lbw b Zaidi 0, A. T. Rayudu c A. Khan b S. Srivastsava 49, Venugopala Rao c A. Khan b Praveen Kumar 8, Balajikrishna Singh (run out) 1, K. S. Shabuddin lbw R. Shamshad 84, A.S.K. Varma c A. Khan b Praveen Kumar 58, Md Faiq c A. Khan b Praveen Kumar 26, Kalyan Krishna (batting) 28, Israel Raju (batting) 3. Extras

(lb-1, w-1, nb-10) 12. Total (for nine wickets in 70 overs): 292.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-10, 3-53, 4-61, 5-72, 6-96, 7-210, 8-258, 9-275.

UP bowling: Zaidi 18-3-59-2, Srivastsava 13-4-51-1, Praveen 20-3-81-4, Chawla 13-0-67-0, Shamshad 6-2-33-1.

Other scores: Elite group:

At Mumbai: Maharashtra 213 and 187 in 55.5 overs (Anupam Sanchlekar 45, Ramesh Powar five for 43) vs Mumbai 175 and 155 for seven in 60 overs (Amol Muzumdar 46)

At Ahmedabad: Karnataka 163 and 226 in 81 overs (Robin Utthapa 56, B. Chipli 67, B. Akhil 41 not out, Siddharth Trivedi four for 57) vs Gujarat 247 and 106 for three in 31 overs (Neeraj Patel 59 batting)

At Kolkata: Railways 259 and 140 for two in 40 overs (Amit Phagnis 76 batting) vs Bengal 278 in 110.3 overs (Arindam Das 70, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala 55, J.P. Yadav four for 53, Harvinder Singh four for 75)

At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 481 for six decl. vs Delhi 366 for eight in 122 overs (M. Manhas 89, Rajat Bhatia 152 batting)

At New Delhi: Services 241 and 182 for three in 69 overs (M.P. Reddy 82 batting) vs. Haryana 282 in 99.3 overs (S. Rana 59, S. Verma 74).

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