Right-arm pacer Nishanth S wrecked Uttar Pradesh with a five-wicket haul to put Hyderabad in the driver’s seat on the first day of their four-day Col CK Nayudu Trophy match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
At stumps, Hyderabad were on their way to take the all-important lead as they reached 82 for two in 32 overs.
Hyderabad openers Pattapu Raghava and Aaron George began in earnest fashion with a 35-run partnership before Aaron, who had made a big century in the previous game, was caught by Ayush Choudhary off Vipraj Nigam for 19 (43 balls; 3×4).
Hyderabad skipper Aman Rao (7) did not last long as he was bowled by Nigam but Raghava and A Avanish Rao steadied the boat with an unbroken partnership for the third wicket. Raghava was batting on 30 off 97 balls with two fours and a six and Avanish was on 17 off 28 balls with three fours.
Earlier, Nishanth struck a few early blows that derailed the Uttar Pradesh innings. The fast bowler had Adarsh Singh (0) caught by Raghava and then got rid of the other opener Swastik Chikara (26; 18 balls, 2×4, 2×6).
Nishanth then bowled Kavya Teotia (1) and had Mohd Amaan (4) caught by Wafi Kachchhi to reduce the visitors to 35 for four.
Fellow pacer Dinesh Rathod then got into the act as he bowled Manav Sindhu (15) to leave UP in dire straits at 54 for five.
Skipper Sameer Rizvi then joined forces with wicketkeeper Kaartikaya Singh and the duo took the score to 93 before left-arm spinner Pranav Varma struck. He trapped Kaartikaya leg before for 28 (35 balls 5×4). Sameer too was caught and bowled by Pranav for 40 off 78 balls with seven fours and UP were 124 for seven. Prashanth Veer (18) became Pranav’s third wicket and Nishanth took his fifth wicket by bowling Vipraj Nigam (8).
However, Aquib Khan struck an unbeaten 26 off 33 balls with four fours and a six as Uttar Pradesh reached 168. Dinesh finished off the innings by having last man Ayush Choudhary (0) caught behind by Avanish Rao.
Nishanth finished with five for 30 and Pranav got three for 36 while Dinesh took two for 69.
Brief scores: Uttar Pradesh 168 in 53.4 overs (Sameer Rizvi 40; Nishanth S 5/30, Pranav Varma 3/36, Dinesh Rathod 2/69) vs Hyderabad 82 for two in 32 overs (Pattapu Raghava 30 batting, A Avanish Rao 17 batting; Vipraj Nigam 2/28).
Deepak keeps Andhra in the hunt for lead
Left-arm pacer M Deepak kept Andhra in the hunt with a three-wicket haul as Uttarakhand struggled in their innings at the Highlanders Sports Academy in Kashipur.
Replying to Andhra’s modest 161, Uttarakhand were 61 for four at stumps on the first day with Deepak taking three for 19.
Uttarakhand began their chase in a bright manner as openers Lincoln Kumar (20) and Abhyuday Bhatnagar (20) added 38 for the first wicket before Abhyuday was trapped leg before by B Yashwant.
Deepak then struck thrice in quick succession to reduce Uttarakhand to 61 for four. He had Lincoln caught by GSP Teja and then trapped Divyam Rawat (7) leg before geting another leg before decision in his favour against Rakshit Rohi (6).
Ujjwal Dabral (4) and Shashank Pant (0) were at the crease.
Earlier, Andhra too struggled to get runs on the board. Garimella Teja topscored with 50 off 113 balls with six boundaries and TV Sai Sravan got 30 off 93 balls with four boundaries. Battina Yashwant chipped in with 24 off 38 balls with two fours and two sixes. Andhra ended up with 161 off 69.4 overs.
Brief scores: Andhra 161 in 69.4 overs (Garimella Teja 50, TV Sai Sharan 30, Battina Yashwanth 24, Sai Vardhan 21; Aditya Rawat 3/33, Nishu Patel 3/38, Rakshit Rohi 2/42) vs Uttarakhand 61 for four (M Deepak 3/19).
