Vidarbha tightened its grip on the Ranji Trophy Group ‘A’ fixture against Andhra after a frenetic second day here at Anantapur Cricket Ground, where wickets fell regularly to leave the host under pressure.
Though Abhishek Reddy continued his good form with a fluent 73, Andhra was bundled out for 228 after the visitor lost its final three wickets to finish on 295.
For the host, Saurabh Kumar played a fighting knock of 62, while Nitish Kumar Reddy looked good in his short stint of 35 off 48 balls.
Vidarbha safely played out the remaining two overs of the day to take an overall lead of 71.
The visitor began the day with overnight batters, centurion Yash Rathod and Nachiket Bhute, getting dismissed within 20 minutes.
Non-existent drive
Rathod went searching for a non-existent drive and was caught behind off K. Saiteja, who also claimed the final wicket of Parth Rekhade similarly. In between, Bhute skied a delivery to gift K. Raju his fifth wicket.
In reply, Andhra began with Abhishek and K.S. Bharat finding boundaries square of the wicket off the backfoot. Bharat, however, didn’t last long and edged to first slip off Darshan Nalkande.
Then, Shaik Rasheed and Ricky Bhui fell without scoring. While Rasheed was cleaned up by Bhute, Thakare had Bhui caught behind.
Abhishek displayed some crisp backfoot punches to collect boundaries before Thakare returned to have him caught at gully, ending the opener’s 91-ball stay. Karan Shinde then chopped on against Dubey.
Andhra’s K. Nitish Kumar Reddy in action.
| Photo Credit:
File photo: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Nitish hit consecutive fours off spinner Rekhade and then Nalkande. The pacer, however, had the last laugh as Nitish smashed straight to cover.
Saurabh, though, continued to knock around but couldn’t carry Andhra’s innings to the next day as Rekhade cleaned him up 10 minutes before stumps.
The scores: Vidarbha — 1st innings: Atharva Taide c Bharat b Raju 13, Aman Mokhade b Raju 21, Danish Malewar c Nitish b Raju 0, R. Samarth c Bharat b Raju 9, Yash Rathod c Bharat b Saiteja 115, Rohit Binkar c Bharat b Saiteja 37, Harsh Dubey lbw b Nitish 9, Darshan Nalkande c & b Saurabh 36, Nachiket Bhute c Rasheed b Raju 31, Prerak Rekhade c Bharat b Saiteja 4, Aditya Thakare (not out) 2; Extras (b-4, lb-7, nb-1, w-6): 18; Total (in 89.3 overs): 295.
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-33, 3-38, 4-45, 5-138, 6-156, 7-232, 8-283, 9-285.
Andhra bowling: Nitish 14-3-51-1, Sasikanth 14-2-50-0, Raju 20-6-62-5, Saiteja 16.3-2-46-3, Vijay 15-1-47-0, Saurabh 10-1-28-1.
Andhra — 1st innings: Abhishek Reddy c Mokhade b Thakare 73, K.S. Bharat c Samarth b Nalkande 9, Shaik Rasheed b Bhute 0, Ricky Bhui c Binkar b Thakare 0, Karan Shinde b Harsh Dubey 20, Nitish Kumar Reddy c Samarth b Nalkande 35, K.V. Sasikanth c Binkar b Bhute 1, Saurabh Kumar b Rekhade 62, K. Raju run out 5, Tripurna Vijay lbw b Rekhade 17, K. Saiteja (not out) 4; Extras (b-1, lb-1): 2; Total (in 65.3 overs): 228.
Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-42, 3-49, 4-94, 5-118, 6-119, 7-166, 8-183, 9-223.
Vidarbha bowling: Nalkande 14-0-71-2, Thakare 12-2-33-2, Bhute 15-1-71-2, Dubey 16-4-26-1, Rekhade 8.3-1-25-2.
Vidarbha — 2nd innings: Aditya Thakare (batting) 4, Atharva Taide (batting) 0; Total (for no loss in two overs): 4.
Andhra bowling: Saurabh 1-0-4-0, Raju 1-1-0-0.
Published – January 23, 2026 06:15 pm IST