Karan Shinde’s second century of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season was the highlight of a rather uneventful final day of Andhra’s Elite Group ‘B’ match against Pondicherry at the CAP Siechem stadium here which ended in a draw on Sunday.
Resuming at 248 for five, the visiting team scored briskly and picked up 71 runs in 13.2 overs with Karan moving to his hundred swiftly. With K.V. Sasikanth retiring hurt on his overnight score of 39, P.V.S.N. Raju came in as a concussion substitute.
Karan, who had helped Andhra recover from 142 for five, was a lot more aggressive today and went on the offensive when the bowlers erred either in line or length.
Tripurana Vijay (15), who joined Karan in the middle and Yarra Prithvi Raj (12 not out) pressed the accelerator as Andhra declared at 319 for 6, setting a target of 363 for the host to pull off an improbable win.
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Prithvi Raj, who had a good match with the ball, showed he was more than an useful batter and smacked a six off Gourav Yadav as Andhra appeared to be in search of quick runs.
The Pondicherry openers – V. Ganga Sridhar Raju (75 not out) and Jay Pande (59 not out) added 152 in 46 overs before the curtains were drawn on the game. The two did play some pleasing strokes with the left-handed Ganga Sridhar scoring on both sides of the wicket.
Andhra picked up three points while Pondicherry got one.
The scores:
Andhra – 1st innings: 303 in 111.5 overs.
Pondicherry – 1st innings: 260 in 79 overs.
Andhra – 2nd innings: Abhishek Reddy lbw b Gourav 15, K.S.Bharat lbw b Ankit 41, Shaik Rasheed (run out) 26, Karan Shinde (not out) 119, Ricky c (sub Gautam Dileep) b Aman 32, Hanuma Vihari c Ganga Sridhar b Ankit 0, K.V.Sasikanth (retired hurt) 39, Tripurana Vijay b Ankit 15, Yarra Prithvi Raj (not out) 12; Extras (nb-1, w-12, lb-5, b-2): 20. Total (for six wickets declared in 82.4 overs): 319.
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-81, 3-82, 4-141, 5-142, 6-278.
Pondicherry bowling: Gourav 12-1-66-1, Abin 15-3-43-0, Udeshi 22-3-74-0, Ankit 28-3-83-3, Aman 3.4-0-35-1, Kargave 2-1-11-0.
Pondicherry – 2nd innings: Ganga Sridhar Raju (not out) 75, Jay Pande (not out) 59; Extras (nb-3, b-10, lb-5): 18. Total (for no loss in 46 overs): 152.
Andhra bowling: Prithvi Raj 8-3-14-0, Raju (concussion sub) 8-2-26-0, Lalith 16-3-39-0, Rafi 4-0-14-0, Vijay 9-1-35-0, Vihari 1-0-9-0.