It turned out to be a slow grind in Anantapur as hosts Andhra crawled to 178 for seven against Assam on the first day of their four-day Col CK Nayudu Trophy match at the Anantapur Cricket Ground on Tuesday.
In Pune, the Maharashtra-Hyderabad game was a non-starter as the previous day’s rain had made conditions unplayable on the first day.
Batting first, Andhra were rocked early on with the Assam bowlers all over them. Andhra lost openers Haneesh Reddy (4) and Sri Vardhan (3) with just seven on the board. Haneesh was bowled by left-arm seamer Bastab Roy, while Sri Vardhan was caught by Rajveer Singh off right-arm pacer Anurag Phukan as the Assam bowlers made good use of the early morning conditions.
To make matters worse for the hosts, they also lost Garimella Teja (0) when he was caught by Reshabh Dipak of Roy to leave Andhra tottering at 12 for three.
However, Munnangi Abhinav and Varun Satwik came to Andhra’s rescue with a fighting partnership. The duo added 66 for the fourth wicket off 184 balls with Abhinav getting 21 off 84 balls and Varun scoring 40 off 100 balls.
Assam saw off Varun as he was caught by Phukan off Dipak for 40 off 100 balls with four boundaries.
Abhinav found another good ally in skipper TV Sai Sravan and the duo added 85 off 215 balls for the fifth wicket before Abhinav fell. Abhinav contributed 41 off 96 balls and Sravan made 44 off 119 balls.
However, Assam hit back as Abhinav was bowled by Ayushman Malakar after the right-handed bat made 67 off 198 balls with nine fours.
Assam then got two more quick wickets to reduced Andhra to 177 for seven. Malakar bowled wicketkeeper MK Datta (3) and then he had the prize wicket of Sravan who had made 52 off 135 balls with nine fours.
Andhra were 178 for seven in 83 overs with B Yashwanth batting on 2 and U Sandesh was on 1.
Brief scores: Andhra 178 for seven in 83 overs (Munnangi Abhinav 67, Varun Satwik 40, TV Sai Sravan 52; Ayushman Malakar 3/31, Bastab Roy 2/34) vs Assam.
Wet outfield prevents start of play
The city of Pune had witnessed heavy rain on Monday and that affected the play on Tuesday. The square and the outfield at the Deccan Gymkhana Cricket Ground was unplayable.
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The match officials Rajesh Singh Timaney and Nitin Pandit (umpires) and Match Referee Sathish Rajagopal called off play at 3.40 pm after the deemed the conditions not suitable for starting the match.
