Medium-pacer M. Mohammed was the pick of the Tamil Nadu bowlers yet again, his four-wicket haul helping in restricting Andhra to 198 for eight on the opening day of their Group B Ranji Trophy clash at the CSR Sarma College grounds here on Tuesday.
TN skipper B. Indrajith chose to bowl on a pitch that had much to offer for the seamers. He must have probably had a close look at the pitch before taking the call. It turned out to be a good decision as his bowlers dismissed the Andhra openers early.
Striking early
T. Natarajan, playing his first game of the season after recovering from an injury, struck in his first over when Prashanth Kumar edged one to wicketkeeper N. Jagadeesan. Soon, Ashwin Hebbar was caught by Kaushik off Mohammed as the home team was reduced to 16 for two in the sixth over.
Ricky Bhui, with back to back centuries under his belt this season, joined Jyothi Sai Krishna (58) in the middle. With Natarajan and Mohammed keeping it tight, runs were hard to come by and a few deliveries that found the edge fell short of the slip fielders.
After a testing time, Bhui stepped up the scoring rate with three well-timed hits to the fence off K. Vignesh in the 20th over. But, Mohammed trapped him leg-before soon. With the Dindigul lad also accounting for skipper B. Sumanth, Andhra was in a spot of bother at 68 for four.
The post-lunch session, however, belonged to Andhra with Sai Krishna and debutant Girinath Reddy (69 batting) putting on a vital 73-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Their effort gave the team the much-needed momentum to post a decent total.
Mohammed and Natarajan scalped a wicket each after tea to put the host on the backfoot. Girinath and Shoaib Mohammed put up a fight for some time but, this time around, spinner Sai Kishore’s twin-strike off successive balls got the visitors back on track.
The scores: Andhra — 1st innings: Prashanth Kumar c Jagadeesan b Natarajan 4, Ashwin Hebbar c Kaushik b Mohammed 12, Sai Krishna c Vignesh b Mohammed 58, Ricky Bhui lbw Mohammed 22, B. Sumanth c Jagadeesan b Mohammed 1, Girinath Reddy (batting) 69, Siva Charan c Aparajith b Natarajan 0, Shoaib Mohammed b Sai Kishore 26, Sasikanth b Sai Kishore 0, Ayyappa Bandaru (batting) 0; Extras (b-4, lb-2) 6; Total (for eight wkts., in 79 overs): 198.
Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-16, 3-56, 4-68, 5-141, 6-142, 7-195, 8-195.
TN bowling: Vignesh 14-3-53-0, Mohammed 20-3-60-4, Natarajan 18-5-31-2, Kousik 16-8-22-0, Sai Kishore 11-4-26-2.
Toss: TN.
