Left-arm pacer C. Stephen (3/46) and medium-pacer Girinath Reddy (2/33) helped Andhra set up an easy seven-wicket win over Tamil Nadu in the Elite Group-B Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament here on Monday.
Electing to field, Andhra bundled out TN for just 176 before Ashwin Hebbar slammed a brilliant unbeaten 101 (84b, 11x4, 5x6) to help his side chase down the target in just 29.1 overs.
In trouble
On helpful conditions, Stephen and Girinath reduced TN to just 82 for five by the 21st over and restrict last year’s runner-up to a modest score.
For TN, B. Aparajith (40) and R. Sonu Yadav (37) were the only bright spots with the bat as the pair added 56 runs for the sixth wicket.
Later, Andhra off-spinner Shoaib Mohammed Khan (3/24) joined the party removing Aparajith and Sonu which ended any hopes of TN reaching a competitive total.
In its chase, opener Hebbar gave Andhra a good start. He was later supported by wicketkeeper Ricky Bhui who scored an unbeaten 52 (41b, 6x4, 2x6) with the duo involved in an unbroken 114-run stand for the fourth wicket.
Tamil Nadu coach D. Vasu said, “It was an important toss, but our batsmen could have applied themselves a bit better because the first hour and half is always going to be tough.”
“It is a competitive group and we might not have a runway leader. So we just have to learn from this and focus on winning the next three games,” he added.
Monday's Hazare trophy scores
Elite A (Surat): Chhattisgarh 242/7 in 50 overs (Harpreet Singh 63, Ashutosh Singh 51) lost to Hyderabad 243/3 in 40.4 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 122, Tilak Varma 60, Himalay Agarwal 49).
Goa 159 in 45.4 overs (Darshan Misal 44) lost to Gujarat 162/2 in 27.4 overs (Priyank Panchal 57 n.o., Bhargav Merai 57).
Tripura 302/7 in 50 overs (Udiyan Bose 56, Bishal Ghosh 50, Manisankar Murasingh 42) lost to Baroda 303/4 in 49 overs (Vishnu Solanki 97, Krunal Pandya 127 n.o.).
Elite B (Indore): Jharkhand 217/9 in 50 overs (Utkarsh Singh 51, Shahbaz Nadeem 45 n.o.) bt Punjab 215 in 45.5 overs (Abhishek Sharma 56, Mandeep Singh 68).
Tamil Nadu 176 in 41.3 overs (B. Aparajith 40) lost to Andhra 181/3 in 29.1 overs (Ashwin Hebbar 101 n.o., Ricky Bhui 52 n.o.).
Madhya Pradesh 243/9 in 50 overs (Aditya Shrivastava 52, Parth Sahani 68 n.o.) lost to Vidarbha 246/6 in 48.5 overs (Faiz Fazal 43, Ganesh Satish 47).
Elite C (Bengaluru): Uttar Pradesh 283 in 49.4 overs (Abhishek Goswami 54, Priyam Garg 57, Akshdeep Nath 68, S. Sreesanth 5/65) lost to Kerala 284/7 in 48.5 overs (Robin Uthappa 81, Sachin Baby 76).
Karnataka 354/3 in 50 overs (R. Samarth 158 n.o., Devdutt Padikkal 97, K.V. Siddharth 76) bt Bihar 87 in 27.2 overs (Prasidh Krishna 4/17).
Odisha 230 in 49.3 overs (Ankit Yadav 48) lost to Railways 231/2 in 44.3 overs (Mrunal Devdhar 44, Pratham Singh 63, Shivam Chaudhary 81 n.o.).
Tuesday’s matches
Elite D (Jaipur): Maharashtra vs Mumbai; Delhi vs Pondicherry; Rajasthan vs Himachal, all at 9 a.m.
Elite E (Kolkata): Jammu & Kashmir vs Services; Bengal vs Chandigarh; Haryana vs Saurashtra, all at 8.45 a.m.
Plate (Chennai): Assam vs Arunachal Pradesh; Uttarakhand vs Manipur; Nagaland vs Mizoram; Meghalaya vs Sikkim.
All matches at 9 a.m.
