Rain restricts play in Coca Cola Cup matches

Rain severely hampered the day's programme on the opening day of the KSCA Coca Cola Cup Under-25 tournament in Bangalore on Sunday. While there was no play in the match between Kerala and Hyderabad at the RSA ground, play in the Andhra-Goa game at the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodayar Sports Complex was restricted to 33.1 overs. Andhra ended the soggy first day at 101 for two wickets.

Play started only at 2.15 pm and Goa captain Nilesh Naik, on winning the toss, put Andhra into bat. A wet pitch did not deter the Andhra openers from making a lively start. TS Prasad (32 not out) and N Anil Kumar (22) put on 30 runs for the first wicket off only 5.4 overs. Anil Kumar was the first to be dismissed when he offered a catch to Nithyanand Halgekar off Nilesh Naik.

One drop G Srinivasa Reddy joined Prasad and the two added 58 runs off 24 overs before the former was bowled by Edison Gonsalves for 31. He faced 76 balls and hit four of them to the ropes. Balaji Krishna, in the company of the patient Prasad took the score past the hundred run mark. But the innings continued to be interrupted. First, play was restricted to just 27 minutes. Then after an early tea, there was play from 3 pm till 5 pm. The umpires made three inspections before calling off play because of bad light at 5.20 pm. By close, the watchful Prasad had batted almost 2-1/2 hours. He faced 91 balls and had three boundary hits to his credit. Balaji Krishna was batting on ten.