Andhra continued with their ascendancy over Hyderabad with yet another solid performance at the Under-14 level. Once upon a time, Andhra were at the receiving end of the South Zone teams, especially Hyderabad. But now things have turned 180 degrees. Andhra have shown remarkable growth and their teams at all age-groups are doing well in the last few years. For example, the Andhra Ranji Trophy team has reached the knockouts this season, while Hyderabad failed to qualify.
On Friday, Andhra once again showed that they are leaps and bounds ahead of Hyderabad as their Under-14 team took the all-important first innings lead in the drawn encounter of the South Zone Under-14 Inter-state tournament at Vizianagaram.
On the first day of the two-day game, Hyderabad made a competitive 303 with Varun Yadav scoring a 115-ball 113 not out. He was assisted by Chetan Aditya, who made 76, and Prasanna Kumar, who scored 34.
Akshat Sinha did the most damage with his four for 92 figures and S Satwik bagged three for 48.
The Andhra reply revolved around centurions Thonda Kinnu and PVSR Varma as they went on to make 485 for nine. Kinnu scored 103 off 109 balls with 13 fours and Varma made 106 off 137 balls with 14 boundaries. KP Sriram scored 84 and B Sai Krishna helped himself to 70.
Varun Yadav was again to the fore as he bagged three for 87 for Hyderabad, who were 23 for no loss in their second innings when play was called. Off.
Brief scores: Hyderabad 303 in 69.5 overs (Varun Yadav 113 not out, Chetan Aditya 76, Prasanna Kumar 34; S Satwik 3/48, Akshat Sinha 4/92) & 23/0 in 11 overs drew with Andhra 485/9 in 90 overs (Thonda Kinnu 103, PVSR Varma 106, KP Sriram 84, B Sai Krishna 70, Manchem C 36; Varun Yadav 3/87).
