Shaik Rasheed’s massive century and an unbeaten half-century by Sreeram Rahul helped Andhra share the spoils with Punjab as the first innings was not completed in their Elite Group B Ranji Trophy match at Ground A of the PCA International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh on Thursday.
Replying to Punjab’s massive 592 for nine declared, Andhra were not too far behind as they reached 505 for eight. As the first innings was not completed both teams had to be content with a point each.
Resuming at their overnight score of 240 for two with Rasheed on 110 and Karan Shinde on 73, Andhra went about their task in a methodical manner. They added 50 more to their score before Punjab hit back.
Karan was caught by substitute H Singh off Sukhdeep Singh Bajwa to miss out on what would have been a well-deserved century. Karan made 96 off 236 balls with 10 fours and three sixes.
Karan and Rasheed shared a 228-run partnership for the third wicket with Karan contributing 96 and Rasheed made 126 off 209 balls.
After Karan’s departure, Andhra found themselves in a bit of bother as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Rasheed and skipper Ricky Bhui added 53 off 146 balls for the fourth wicket before Rasheed departed.
Shaik Rasheed leads Andhra fightback with an unbeaten ton, still trail Punjab by 352 runs
Rasheed was caught behind by Salil Arora off Harpreet Brar but not before he made 176 off 333 balls with 19 hits to the fence.
Ricky fell soon thereafter as he was caught by skipper Uday Saharan off Vihaan Malhotra for 36 off 104 balls with two sixes.
Andhra lost KV Sasikanth (12), Saurabh Kumar (16) and KS Narasimha Raju (13) to be reduced to 458 foro eight and were in danger of conceding the first innings lead.
But Sreeram Rahul and Tripurana Vijay stuck it out in the middle. The duo added 47 off 74 balls for the unbroken ninth wicket to deny Punjab three points from the game.
Rahul was unbeaten on 76 off 159 balls with six fours and two sixes, while Vijay was not out on 17 off 38 balls with four boundaries.
Going into the Ranji break, Punjab are in the fourth position with 13 points, while Andhra are lying at the bottom of the table with four points from four matches. After a promising start to the season where they had the upper hand over a strong Karnataka side and took three points from the game, Andhra went into a slide. They lost to Hyderabad and Chhattisgarh to lose their way in the tournament.
Brief scores: Punjab 592 for nine declared in 156 overs drew with Andhra 505 for eight in 178 overs (CR Gnaneshwar 49, Shaik Rasheed 176, Karan Shinde 96, Ricky Bhui 31, Sreeram Rahul 76 not out, Tripurana Vijay 17 not out; Harpreet Brar 2/148, Gursimran Singh 2/91, Vihaan Malhotra 2/44).
