The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sumanth holds fort for Andhra

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Sumanth holds fort for Andhra

Principal Correspondent

THALASSERY: Andhra crawled to 215 for five on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Plate Group B match against Kerala at the Thalassery Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

A disciplined bowling, backed up by tight fielding, made runs difficult to come by for the visiting batsmen, some of whom were also guilty of indiscretion.

But their skipper B. Sumanth (58 batting) has ensured the day didn’t belong entirely to the host. He has shown admirable temperament in his first innings as the Andhra captain.

His opposite number, S. Sreesanth, too showed promise as a debutant skipper. He bowled with pace and a lot of heart on a wicket not very sympathetic to fast bowling and he marshalled his resources well.

He made everyone other than the wicket-keeper Vinan G. Nair bowl and he was rewarded for his experimentation too, as V.A. Jagadeesh, with his gentle medium-pace, picked up the most crucial wicket of the day of Y. Venugopala Rao.

Ominous touch

Venugopala was looking in ominous touch when he mistimed a lofted shot and was well caught by Tinu Yohannan in the mid-off. His fifth-wicket stand with Sumanth, worth 82 at the time, was threatening to make tea taste bitter for Kerala.

He wasn’t the only batsman to plot his own dismissal, though. Opener Hemal Watekar, after adding 46 for the opening wicket with L.N. Prasad Reddy, gave an opportunity, and ample time, for Kerala’s new cap Sachin Baby to catch him at backward short leg when he was actually posted in the slips. Left-arm spinner Sreekumar Nair was the one who provided that breakthrough and he returned later in the afternoon to trap Manoj Sai lbw to end a promising fifth wicket partnership of 48 with Sumanth.

He was also instrumental in running Prasad Reddy out.

The scores: Andhra 1st innings: Hemal Watekar c Sachin b Sreekumar 29, L.N. Prasad Reddy (run out) 16, A.S.K. Varma c Vinan b Sony 4, Y. Venugopal Rao c Tinu b Jagadeesh 69, B. Sumanth (batting) 58, Manoj Sai lbw Sreekumar 17, K. Syed Sahabuddin (batting) 4, Extras (b-1, lb-2, 15-nb) 18. Total (for five wickets in 90 overs) 215.

Fall of wickets: 1-46, 2-56, 3-62, 4-144, 5-192.

Kerala bowling: Sreesanth 13-3-33-0, Tinu 10-1-38-0, Sreekumar 18-7-30-2, Sony 13-4-31-1, Prasanth 17-5-48-0, Sambasiva 1-0-8-0, Jagadeesh 13-6-11-1, Raiphy 2-1-4-0, Sachin 1-0-5-0, Rohan 2-0-4-0.

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