Onus on Vidarbha bowlers

 

 

 Sports Reporter :

 

VIDARBHA bowlers will have to come out with some out of the box thinking if they hope of getting better of Andhra in their Elite Group A Ranji Trophy match at Ananatapur. On fourth and final day on Sunday, Vidarbha bowlers will have to take nine wickets while Andhra, going strong in their second innings, need 166 runs for an outright win. On third day, Vidarbha batters failed to recreate any magic of the first innings and were shot out for a mere 191 handing the hosts a target of 259 runs.

 

By end of the day’s play, Andhra were cruising along at 93-1 with India discard stumper Srikar Bharat (27; 79b, 3x4) and Shaik Rasheed (50*; 65b, 8x4) being the not out batsmen. The lone wicket to fall was of Abhishek Reddy (11; 12b, 1x4), who was caught by Aman Mokhade off seamer Nachiket Bhute in the sixth over. After that dismissal, both Bharat and Rasheed frustrated Vidarbha bowlers.

 

Earlier, Vidarbha lost night-watchman Aditya Thakare for ten. Except for Mokhade (51; 65b, 6x4) and Yash Rathod (56; 87b, 7x4, 1x6), who hit fifties, and Ravikumar Samarth who made a composed 47 from 76 balls hitting four boundaries, rest of the batters failed.

 

As many as five of them failed to open their account. Last year’s top batter Danish Malewar completed a pair on his first match of the season.

 

VIDARBHA 1ST INNINGS 295 ANDHRA 1ST INNINGS 228 VIDARBHA 2ND INNINGS (overnight 4-0) A Thakare b Saiteja10 A Taide c Bharat b N Reddy0 A Mokhade b Kumar51 D Malewar b N Reddy0 R Samarth b Saiteja47 Y Rathod c Kumar b Raju56 R Binkar lbw b Saiteja8 H Dubey c Rasheed b Vijay0 D Nalkande c Vijay b Saiteja0 N Bhute st Bharat b Kumar14 P Rekhade Not Out0 Extras: (lb 5)5 TOTAL: (All out, 55.2 overs)191 FoWS: 1-10, 2-10, 3-10, 4-102, 5-128, 6-142, 7-143, 8-144, 9-174. Bowling: Kumar 11-0-47-2, Raju 10.2-1-39-1, Saiteja 12-2-28-4, N Reddy 8-1-29-2, Sasikanth 5-0-23-0 Vijay 9-0-20-1. ANDHRA 2ND INNINGS A Reddy c Mokhade b Bhute11 S Bharat batting27 S Rasheed batting50 Extras: (lb 4, w 1)5 TOTAL: (1 wicket, 26 overs)93 Fall of wicket: 1-15. Bowling: Nalkande 4-0-19-0, Bhute 8-1-21-1, Thakare 4-0-15-0, Dubey 8-2-29-0, Rekhade 2-0-5-0.