Madhya Pradesh’s fortunes spiralled from nice to worse in a span of three periods as Andhra rode on Hanuma Vihari’s unbeaten 43 (109b, 4×4) to inch nearer to its first-ever Ranji Trophy semifinals.
In pursuit of 170 on the Holkar Stadium on Sunday, Andhra had a jittery begin, shedding openers Okay Revanth Reddy and DB Prashanth Kumar with simply 20 runs on the board.
However, Vihari weathered the storm and cast key partnerships with Nithish Reddy and Ricky Bhui to maintain the visiting crew within the hunt. He wasn’t in a rush to attain runs; relatively on a floor that had little assist for the bowlers because the day progressed, Vihari determined to hold in there and take care of singles.
Even although Saransh Jain cleaned up Bhui on the fag finish, Vihari caught to his pure recreation to keep away from slip-ups. As Madhya Pradesh made determined efforts by introducing Anubhav and Kartikeya from each ends, the pace-spin mixture couldn’t break Vihari’s momentum. Pairing with the seasoned Karan Shinde, the India worldwide guided the crew to 95 for 4 at stumps on the third day, with 75 runs required for a historic win.
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While Vihari took the centrestage within the final couple of periods, the morning belonged to the Andhra quick bowlers – Nithish (4 for 28) and Okay.V. Sasikanth (3 for 20). Taking a leaf out of their Madhya Pradesh counterparts, each Nithish and Sasikanth bowled stump to stump, and the technique paid off as the house facet was bundled out for 107.
Sasikanth discovered an early breakthrough by rattling Yash Dubey’s off-stump earlier than Nithish joined in with a pointy return catch of Harsh Gawali. Venkatesh Iyer did not capitalise on an early reprieve and was caught behind by Revanth on the second ball of Sasikanth’s second spell. As MP batters lacked intent, left-arm spinner Lalith Mohan tightened the noose with fast buys and claimed his a centesimal wicket by dismissing Saransh.
BRIEF SCORES
Madhya Pradesh – 1st innings: 234
Andhra – 1st innings: 172
Madhya Pradesh – 2nd innings: Yash Dubey b Sasikanth 9, Himanshu Mantri c Prashanth b Nithish 43, Harsh Gawali c & b Nithish 6, Shubham Sharma c Revanth b Nithish 2, Venkatesh Iyer c Revanth b Sasikanth 17, Sumit Kushwah lbw b Nithish 12, Saransh Jain c Revanth b Lalith Mohan 0, Anubhav Agarwal c Revanth b Lalith Mohan 8, Kumar Kartikeya b Lalith Kumar 0, Avesh Khan (not out) 9, Kulwant Khejroliya c Prashanth b Sasikanth 1 (7b)
Extras: 0
Total: (all out in 40.5 overs) 107
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-37, 3-39, 4-70, 5-84, 6-89, 7-89, 8-93, 9-104, 10-107
Madhya Pradesh bowling: Girinath 7-1-17-0, Lalith Mohan 8-3-20-3, Sasikant 10.5-5-20-3, Nithish 10-2-28-4, Shoaib 2-0-8-0, Hebbar 3-1-14-0.
Andhra – 2nd innings: Okay Revanth Reddy c Mantri b Anubhav 9, DB Prashanth Kumar b Kartikeya 6, Okay Nithish Kumar Reddy c Kushwah b Anubhav 20, Hanuma Vihari (not out) 43, Ricky Bhui b Saransh 9, Karan Shinde (not out) 5
Extras: (lb-3) 3
Total: (for 4 wickets in 44 overs) 95
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-20, 3-56, 4-81
Madhya Pradesh bowling: Avesh 9-2-22-0, Anubhav 9-1-22-2, Khejroliya 7-1-12-0, Kartikeya 12-1-29-1, Saransh 7-2-7-1.
Source web site: sportstar.thehindu.com
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