Ranji Trophy: Andhra draw match with Tamil Nadu

Chennai: After two days had been washed out owing to rain, Andhra and Tamil Nadu shared a point each after their Group B Ranji Trophy match ended in a draw at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Tuesday.

When the stumps were drawn on the fourth and final day, Tamil Nadu were 164 for seven in 37 overs. Opting to bat after winning the toss, Andhra were all out for 203 in 77.2 overs on the first day of the game.

Baba Indrajith top-scored for the hosts with a 51-ball 43. Tamil Nadu now have 16 points from five matches, while Andhra totalled 10 from six games. Tamil Nadu take on Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur in the next round.

Batting was difficult on a slow turner and the home side's opening batsman Baba Aparajith made his exit in the fifth over for just 6 runs. Then, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Kathik joined captain Abhinav Mukund and the former straightaway started scoring freely. But Dinesh was ran out while trying to take a quick single for 29 runs.

Vijay Shankar was clean bowled by Shivraj for 3. In-form Indrajith and R Satish steadied the innings before Satish was run out for 33. Indrajith, too, got out when he stepped out to hit B. Sudhakar and was stumped by keeper Bharath. Later, Malolan Rangarajan made an useful 26.

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): B. Aparajith c Prasanth b Siva Kumar 6, A Mukund (run out) 27, K.D. Karthik (run out) 29, V. Shankar b Shivraj 3, B. Indrajith st Bharat b Sudhakar 43, R. Sathish (run out) 33, M. Rangarajan b Sudhakar 2, J. Kousik (not out) 10, K.M. Gandhi (not out) 6; Extras (lb4, w1) 5; Total (for seven wickets in 37 overs) 164.

FoW: 1-11, 2-55, 3-60, 4-77, 5-132, 6-146, 7-153.

Bowling: G. Shankara Rao 4-1-25-0, D. Siva Kumar 11-2-33-1, D.B. Prasanth 6-0-30-0, B. Sudhakar 10-1-44-2, H. Shivraj 6 0-28-1.