Andhra seize initiative against Tamil Nadu

Washington, who could do no wrong these days, was the guilty party when he failed to grab a regulation catch with Hebbar on 13 and Andhra down in the dumps at 82 for five. The bowler who let out a cry of anguish at that ‘offering’ being dropped was R Ashwin while he wasn’t the only one in paying a hefty price as Andhra finished the day at 231 for seven with a handy lead of 55 runs. 

Washington had to travel quite some distance on the long road to redemption - 100 runs to be precise, as pacer K Vignesh got Hebbar out for 64, with Andhra on 182 - before he could expiate his offence. The first session afforded the host ample scenes of revelry with the visiting team’s top order having no stomach for a battle. Andhra batsmen had no vast reserves of that virtue called patience and the only feature that remained a constant on both days was the lack of application from the batting team. 

Speedster L Vignesh wasted no time in striking telling blows removing opener DB Prashanth for one and followed that up with the wicket of captain Hanuma Vihari. The bowler’s craft aside, what screamed out for attention was the superlative close-in catching of twins Aparajith and Indrajith. Vihari’s end came about when he slashed at a wide delivery outside off to be held brilliantly by Aparajith at gully with the on 12. The Andhra batsmen were guilty of not reining in their flashy 

strokeplay and could have been sitting on an even substantial lead if they had not shown undue haste in going for their shots. The arrival of the stocky Ricky Bhui enlivened the day’s affairs as he batted with an aggressive mindset that fetched him four boundaries, and he was particularly severe on left-arm spinner Rahil Shah, whom he creamed for two boundaries in one over. 

Bhui was another of the batsmen to fall prey to that over the top aggression when he attempted an expansive shot, only for the ball to land in the hands of Aparajith. Ashwin was parsimonious in his opening spell giving away just nine runs in 10 overs that Hebbar and B Sumanth played with resolve, much to the frowning looks on the TN players faces, and raised a crucial 116-run association for the sixth wicket. Interestingly, it was also the highest partnership of the match with both batsmen helping themselves to half-centuries. Both players showed pluck and enterprise as they gradually went about building the lead.

Tamil Nadu (1st innings): 176 

Andhra (1st innings): DB Prashanth Kumar c Indrajith b L Vignesh 1, KS Bharat st Jagadeesan b Ashwin 32, Hanuma Vihari c Aparajith b L Vignesh 3, Ricky Bhui c Aparajith b K Vignesh 22, Y Venugopala Rao c Rahil Shah b Ashwin 3, B Sumanth (batting) 72, Ashwin Hebbar b K Vignesh 64, Shoaib Mohammed Khan (batting) 14, Bhargav Bhatt c Jagadeesan b Washington 4. 

Total (for seven wickets in 93 overs) 231. Extras 16. FoW: 1-8, 2-12, 3-40, 4-57, 5-64, 6-182, 7-193. 

Bowling: Ashwin 23-9-51-2, K Vignesh 22-8-46-2, L Vignesh 13-3-36-2, Rahil Shah 19-2-52-0, Washington Sundar 14-2-29-1, Vijay 2-0-7-0