Andhra tailender K.V. Sasikanth took on Rajasthan’s best bowlers Aniket Choudhary and Shubham Singh to score a rapid 34 but his cameo came a bit too late as Rajasthan took control of the Ranji Trophy Group E encounter at the KCA-St. Xavier’s College ground here on Friday. Sasikanth’s carefree innings was in sharp contrast to the timidity showed by the Andhra top-order, who allowed the Rajasthan bowlers to dominate.
Rajasthan grabbed a crucial 51-run first innings lead after bowling out Andhra for 224. At stumps on the second day, Rajasthan had extended the lead to 148 runs, having scored 97 for two in the second innings.
Mahipal Lomror (45 batting) and Aditya Gharwal (35 batting), in contrasting styles, added 53 runs for the third wicket after the openers perished cheaply. While Lomror dropped anchor, Aditya counter-attacked as the third-wicket pair increased Rajasthan’s lead. To compound Andhra’s woes, Aditya was reprieved twice.
Testing time
In the morning, Rajasthan medium-pacers Aniket Choudhary and Tanveer Haq zipped the ball around in helpful conditions. Nightwatchman Manish fell early to Aniket but Girinath and Ricky Bhui survived the testing opening hour.
However, it was Tanveer’s twin strikes in the 49th over that derailed the Andhra innings. Tanveer had Ricky Bhui caught in the slips by Aditya Garhwal off a lifter and off the next ball skipper Bharath shouldered arms to an incoming delivery. Aniket then prised out the watchful Girinath (71) to leave Andhra tottering at 147 for six.
The sun came out and the dry surface offered enough help for the spinners. Both Shubham Singh and Manav Suthar varied their length and pace to confuse the Andhra batters.
Rearguard action
The duo dried up runs and induced false strokes from the lower-order batters. Andhra slumped to 180 for nine but Sasikanth and Stephen figured in an enterprising 44-run last-wicket stand to bring respectability to the total.
The scores: Rajasthan — 1st innings: 275.
Andhra — 1st innings: Gnaneshwar c Aditya b Aniket 1, U.M.S. Girinath c Aditya b Aniket 71 , Karan Shinde c Aditya b Aniket 23, Manish Golamaru b Aniket 7, Ricky Bhui c Aditya b Tanveer 18, K.S. Bharat lbw b Tanveer 0, Y. Sandeep lbw b Shubham 25, P. Tapaswi c Bishnoi b Shubham 16, K.V. Sasikanth b Aniket 34, T. Vijay c & b Manish 0, Stephen (not out) 14; Extras (b-8, lb-6, w-1): 15; Total (in 86.2 overs): 224 Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-58, 3-84, 4-118, 5-118, 6-147, 7-171, 8-178, 9-180. Rajasthan bowling: Aniket 18-6-40-4, Tanveer 17-5-41-2, Shubham 23-3-69-3, Manav 15-7-28-1, Anirudh 11-3-23-0, Lomror 1-0-5-0, Kothari 1-0-4-0. Rajasthan — 2nd innings: Yash Kothari lbw b Sasikanth 3, Manender Singh c Vijay b Manish 7, Mahipal Lomror (batting) 45, Aditya Garhwal (batting) 35; Extras (lb-6 nb-1): 7; Total (for two wkts. in 31 overs): 97. Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-44. Andhra bowling: Stephen 8-1-22-0, Sasikanth 8-4-10-1, Vijay 7-0-27-0, Manish 8-0-32-1.
