UP take first day's honours

Uttar Pradesh v Andhra
Uttar Pradesh took the opening day's honours in their Vijay Merchant (under-16) Trophy tournament semifinal against Andhra at the Vellyani Agricultural college ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. After bowling out Andhra for 182, UP scored 121 for three at close.

Winning the toss, Andhra made a poor start with both openers KS Rao and A Suresh falling to Upadhayay with only 22 runs on the board. Skipper Gnaneswara Rao (26) fell at 65. However ASK Varma (66) and GS Rao (40) steadied the innings with a fourth wicket stand of 72 runs off 18.3 overs. While Varma faced 108 balls and hit ten of them to the ropes, Rao faced 92 balls and had four boundary hits. Once this partnership was broken there was precious little substance in the batting and Shukla picked up four wickets for 45 to bring the innings to a swift end.

UP lost Ashraf Ali (2) quickly but SK Shukla (21) and MF Khan (64) added 43 runs for the second wicket. This was followed by a third wicket partnership of 67 runs off 21.2 overs between Khan and skipper P Malviya (15 not out). Khan was out in the penultimate over of the day after having faced 110 balls and hitting eight fours.

Tamil Nadu struggled for runs on the opening day of the other semifinal against Mumbai at the Medical college ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. Winning the toss, Tamil Nadu were restricted to 172 for nine off 101 overs at stumps.

Tamil Nadu's troubles started early when S Vinoth was bowled by Valthaty for a duck off the last ball of the first over of the match. S Vijayasarathy (29) and G Balaji (17) steadied the innings by adding 41 runs for the second wicket off 21.3 overs. But skipper H Ravle then got among the wickets and Tamil Nadu were down in the dumps at 67 for five. Skipper Aditya Srikkanth held firm for some time before he was sixth out for 94 for 30. He faced 72 balls and hit four of them to the ropes.

Vasudevadas and Junaid Ahmed with valuable knocks of 23 and 32 not out kept the innings going. But SG Pandey picked up a couple of wickets in the closing stages and it remained a hard grind for Tamil Nadu throughout the day. Junaid however batted defiantly till stumps. He has so far faced 156 balls and hit four of them to the fence.