da bwin： On a day of fast moving developments, Andhra, recovering from adisappointing first innings effort of 195, reduced Karnataka to 90/4by stumps in a South Zone Ranji Trophy clash at Belgaum on Wednesday
Sankhya Krishnan15-Nov-2000On a day of fast moving developments, Andhra, recovering from adisappointing first innings effort of 195, reduced Karnataka to 90/4by stumps in a South Zone Ranji Trophy clash at Belgaum on Wednesday.It was only the second first-class tie at the Union Gymkhana Groundhere, the first which took place thirty years ago between the sameopponents ended in an innings victory for the hosts.On this occasion Andhra skipper Amit Pathak beat his Karnatakacounterpart J Arun Kumar, making his debut as skipper, over the tossand elected to take first strike. There were only two partnerships ofsubstance in the entire innings as the Karnataka bowlers never letslip their ascendancy over the proceedings. Openers Pathak and LNPReddy added 42 for the first wicket before both were removed insuccessive overs by speedster Mansur Ali Khan.Spinners Anand Yalvigi and Santosh Vadiaraj then combined to vanquishthe middle order. Teenager Venugopala Rao had been the bulwark of theinnings but when he was bowled by Vadiaraj for 42, it left Andhra in apickle at 126/7. Sahabudin and Watekar added 45 for the eighth wicketto lend a tone of respectability to the total before the two openingbowlers, Ganesh and Khan returned to close out the innings for 195 inthe 62nd over. Both Vadiaraj and Khan scalped three wickets each.Back on the field with the new ball in his hand, Sahabuddin slicedthrough the Karnataka top order with a damaging spell. After takingout Mithun Beerala for 10, he bided his time for a while beforedismissing skipper Arun Kumar and Sujith Somasunder – the latter for aduck – in successive overs. Without the reassuring presence of VijayBharadwaj – away in Faridabad for the Board President XI’s clash withZimbabwe – Barrington Rowland and Thilak Naidu strove to restore thehost team’s dominance. Their rally was nipped shortly before stumpswhen Vatekar took a return catch to send back Rowland and ensure anintriguing second day’s play on Thursday.