Andhra make good score on opening day

Hyderabad: After opting to bat first on a placid batting track at the Gymkhana grounds, Andhra started quietly with no runs in the first over. Vanka Pratap, sharing the new ball with Narenderpal Singh, took a severe beating from the Andhra skipper Amit Pathak, with his first couple of overs costing him 20 runs, all scored in boundaries.

Soon after Amit turned his attention towards N P Singh and continued in the same vein, striking the bowler for 3 more fours to register the first 50 runs on the board in 51 minutes off 11.5 overs, Pathak contibuting 38 of them in the company of L N Prasad Reddy. Reddy [ 16 ] lived a charmed life when Kanwaljeet could not hold on to a return catch offered at 63 in the 19th over of the innings and 9th of the bowler.

Venkatapathi Raju drew first blood with an arm ball to deceive Amit Pathak who was clean bowled for an aggressive 56 off 73 balls in a stay of 89 minutes. Nagini Kumar accompanied Reddy who lofted Kanwaljeet over mid-wicket for a huge 6. Azharuddin replaced Raju at the pavilion end as both Kanwaljeet and Raju were no threat to the batsmen and struck immediately to trap Reddy in front of the wickets to get an LBW decision from umpire Giridharan standing at the Pavilion end.

Lunch was taken at 113 for 2 after 42 overs. Nineteen runs after the resumption Raju replaced Kanwaljeet and was successful in getting a verdict of LBW in the first over of his second spell, bowling from the pavilion end. Venugopal who came in at the fall of Reddy found an able partner in R V Ch.Prasad and the two repaired the innings to give solidity by adding 142 runs for the fourth wicket in less than even time.

The free stroking Prasad unleashed an array of strokes on either side of the wicket to show the stuff he is made of, collecting 14 off 4 balls in the first over of Vanka Pratap's second spell after which he was not bowled again, Pratap's 3 overs costing his 34 runs. Venu and Prasad were together when Andhra went to tea at 210 for 3 after 75 overs.

Azharuddin also suffered the wrath of Prasad when he was belted for 3 fours in 4 balls off a fresh over in his second spell, before the bowler had the last laugh when Nandakishore came up with a superb catch at short leg. Prasad's heroics lasted for 136 minutes and in 105 balls he belted 13 fours as he scored a valuable 79 runs and dominated the partnership. Their association produced 142 runs in 136 minutes off 33.5 overs.

Azharuddin again struck, much to the relief of his regular bowlers, claiming I Srinivas well caught at silly point by Vinay Kumar. The batsman showed his disagreement with the Umpire [Giridharan] while returning back to the dressing room.Azharuddin [9-1-36-3] bettered his best bowling figures [ 9-2-22-2] against the same oppostion way back in the 1994-95 season. At close on day-1, Venugopala Rao [72] and K S T Sai [7] were at the crease. Hyderabad conceded 300 runs which included as many as 37 fours and 1 six in bowling 97 overs.