Hyderabad: New ball bowlers C. V. Milind and M. Ravi Kiran came up with sterling performances to push Andhra on the backfoot on the first day of their Ranji Trophy Group ‘C’ match being played at Lucknow.
The Hyderabad bowlers justified their captain’s decision to bowl first as they demolished Andhra’s batting unit to bundle them out for 190 in 59 overs. Milind and Ravi’s figures read as 5 for 28 and 4 for 33 respectively.
M. Pranith hit 63 while Ashwin Hebbar scored 52 for Andhra. At stumps, Hyderabad were 10 for no loss in 7 overs. Meanwhile in Mohali, Karnataka skipper R. Vinay Kumar led from the front with a five-wicket haul to bowl out Maharashtra for 163 in their final Group ‘B’ league match at the IS Bindra Stadium.
At stumps on the opening day, Karnataka were 67 for 1. Vinay sent the opposition in and took over after Stuart Binny fetched Karnataka the breakthrough. Save for an opening stand of 42 between Swapnil Gugale (25) and Rohit Motwani (32), Maharashtra, in need of a big win here to hope for a knockout berth, were destroyed by Vinay, as he picked up 5-46.
In a sense of deja vu, Abhimanyu Mithun, back in the XI, pulled up after just two deliveries raising concern over his fitness but S Arvind (2-32) and Binny (2-40) ensured Maharashtra were dismissed cheaply. In reply, Karnataka started badly as Arjun Hoysala departed to Sanklecha’s fifth delivery before Ravikumar Samarth (33) and Kaunain Abbas (30) ensured no any further damage.
