Uttarakhand skipper Harsh Rana struck an unbeaten century to steer his side to a big score against Hyderabad in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday.
At stumps on the first day of play, Uttarakhand were 336 for six with Rana batting on 103 and giving him company was Shashank Pant on 34.
Batting first, Uttarakhand lost an early wicket in the form of opener Aditya Naithani with the score reading six. Pacer Dinesh Rathod had Aditya (2) caught behind by A Avanish Rao.
But Lincoln Kumar and Divyam Rawat steadied the Uttarakhand nerves with a 72-run partnership for the second wicket which came off 70 balls before Rawat was bowled by leggie Wafi Kachchhi for a 44-ball 33.
Lincoln Kumar followed Divyam Rawat soon as he was caught by Raghava off Nishanth for 52 off 59 balls with nine fours.
Rana thereafter took charge of the proceedings. He and Abhyuday Bhatnagar took the fight to the enemy camp as they added 90 off 139 balls for the fourth wicket. Bhatnagar was the aggressive of the duo as he contributed 52 off 71 balls to the partnership, while Rana’s contribution was 33 off 68 balls. Bhatnagar was caught by Rathod of Nishanth and his half-century contained eight hits to the fence.
Five-star Tanay spins Hyderabad to a handy 91-run first innings lead against hosts Andhra
Rana then added 53 for the sixth wicket with Nishu Patel (29) but Patel fell. However, there was no respite for Hyderabad as Rana and Shashank Pant then stitched an unbroken 73-run partnership off 127 balls for the seventh wicket which took Uttarakhand past the 300-run mark. Both the batters have contributed 34 each to the partnership.
Nishanth took two for 63 and Pranav Varma bagged two for 79.
Brief scores: Uttarakhand 336 for six in 90 overs (Lincoln Kumar 52, Divyam Rawat 33, Harsh Rana 103 batting, Abhyuday Bhatnagar 52, Nishu Patel 29, Shashank Pant 34 batting; Nishanth S 2/63, Pranav Varma 2/79).
Andhra bowled out for 181, UP on top
In Lucknow, Andhra were on the backfoot against Uttar Pradesh. Batting first at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, Andhra were bundled out for 181 and the hosts were 68 for no loss at stumps on the first day.
Opener Adarsh Singh struck a fine half-century to propel the Uttar Pradesh reply. He was batting on 51 off 78 balls with four boundaries and Kavya Teotia was on 16 off 66 balls.
Earlier, Andhra lost Haneesh Reddy (1) and TV Sai Sravan (3) with just 11 on the board. Andhra never recovered from the early blows. Munnangi Abhinav made 22 and Garimella Teja 11 but both fell with the score reading 37.
Varun Satwik added 24 for the fifth wicket with SDNV Prasad (17) and then he added 59 for the sixth wicket before he perished for 41 off 82 balls with six fours.
Thereafter, it was left to Battina Yashwanth to prop up the score. He made a fighting 63 off 133 balls with eight fours and two sixes.
Andhra were all out for 181 in 65.2 overs with Yashwanth being the last man standing. Spinner Vipraj Nigam took four for 47 and pacer Aquib Khan got three for 24.
Brief scores: Andhra 181 in 65.2 overs (Munnangi Abhinav 22, Varun Satwik 41, Battina Yashwanth 63; Aquib Khan 3/24, Vipraj Nigam 4/47) vs Uttar Pradesh 68 for no loss in 24 overs (Adarsh Singh 51 batting, Kavya Teotia 16 batting).
