Andhra's confident reply to Hyderabad's 421

A strong rearguard action saw Hyderabad, 262 for five overnight, score 421 in their first innings on the second day of their South Zone Cooch Behar Trophy (under-19) match against Andhra at the Ukku stadium in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. But Andhra, far from being overawed, replied fairly strongly and were 105 for two off 25 overs at stumps.

The overnight not out batsmen Arjun Yadav and Ibrahim Khaleel took the score to 290 before the latter was out for 34. The two had added 61 runs for the sixth wicket off 33.5 overs. This was followed by a seventh wicket partnership of 46 runs off 18.2 overs between Yadav and Ahmed Qadri. Yadav was out for 52 off 155 balls with four hits to the ropes. Syed Yakoob was out first ball but Qadri and Nalin Reddy prolonged Andhra's agony by adding 76 runs off 35 overs for the ninth wicket. Reddy, who batted two hours for his 32, faced 112 balls and hit four of them to the fence. The innings did not last long thereafter but Qadri came in unbeaten with 64, compiled off 163 balls with seven boundary hits. Md Faiq, with four for 66, was the most successful bowler while opening bowler Appala Raju took three for 41.

Andhra made a rather shaky start. Openers M Suresh (3) and Manoj Sai (27) were out with only 40 runs on the board. But an unbroken third wicket stand of 65 runs off 16.3 overs between Y Gnaneswara Rao (45) and ASK Varma (27) revived their hopes at close of play.