Karnataka and Andhra locked in close battle

The KSCA Coca Cola Under 25 encounter between hosts Karnataka and Andhra at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore was evenly poised at stumps on the second day. Andhra were leading by 222 runs with one second innings wicket in hand as the match looks to be heading for an outright result on the third and final day tomorrow.

Earlier in the morning Karnataka collapsed to just 167 in their first innings after resuming at their overnight score of 97/1. The bulk of the damage was done by seamer Balasaraswathi Reddy who claimed 6/61 to help Andhra to a first innings lead of 53. Karnataka opener Shyam Ponnappa failed to add to his overnight score of 58, giving Balaji Krishna his sole wicket of the innings.

The other not out batsman AR Mahesh did manage to advance his score from 23 to 38 before Reddy had him caught behind. Of the rest only S Sudhindra showed some inclination to stay at the wicket, making 23 in one and a quarter hours stay at the crease. MN Vikram complemented Reddy's efforts with a three wicket bag of his own.

In reply Andhra got off to a dreadful start losing their first five wickets with just 19 runs on the board, opening bowlers NC Ayyappa and Sunil Kumar scalping all five wickets between them. Middle order bat Arjun Kumar in association with the tail sparked a recovery that lifted Andhra to 169/9 at stumps. Arjun was undefeated on a priceless 56 (87 balls, 5 fours) while Ayyappa returned figures of 5/44 as the match heads to an interesting climax.