Bhui’s determined knock props up Andhra

Presenting a fine example of a knock built on the foundation of patience and discipline, captain Ricky Bhui scored a determined half-century to guide Andhra Pradesh to 264 for six in the first innings on day one of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Bengal here on Friday.

Asked to bat at the Bengal Cricket Academy ground, Andhra rode on Bhui and Nitish Reddy’s 108-run partnership to lay a good platform before Bengal fought back brilliantly.

The green-top track was fair towards both batters and seamers. The home bowlers’ lack of discipline allowed the visiting openers to score briskly.

K.S. Bharat (47, 57b, 9×4), who hit three consecutive fours on the onside off Mukesh Kumar’s first over, displayed his crisp stroke-play all around to push Bengal on the back-foot and gathered 58 runs with Abhishek Reddy.

Bengal bowlers found a better length after an hour’s play. Akash Deep extracted extra bounce to have Abhishek caught behind. Bharat, following a ‘life’ on 38 off Akash Deep, hooked Mukesh to deep fine-leg before lunch.

S.K. Rasheed (46, 75b, 9×4), dropped on 20 off Shami, impressed with his timing before edging Mukesh to first slip.

C.R. Gnaneshwar fell cheaply to Shami, but Bhui (83, 174b, 8×4, 2×6) – with the DRS favouring him twice – showed character to rotate the strike well with Nitish for an important partnership.

Bhui chose the cover area to get most of his boundaries and hoisted Shahbaz Ahmed twice over long-on ropes.
Nitish’s supportive role (33, 99b, 3×4) was restrained.

Bhui’s freak dismissal, who got distracted and unintentionally cut the hard-working Akash high to see Shahbaz complete a spectacular diving catch at third-man, resurrected Bengal’s hopes. Soon, Nitish pulled Mukesh to fine-leg.

Despite conceding extras generously, the host must be delighted that Akash provided vital breakthroughs, Mukesh regained his discipline to scalp three and Shami performed tidily.

The scores: Andhra Pradesh – 1^st innings: Abhishek Reddy c Gandhi b Akash 18, K.S. Bharat c Shami b Mukesh 47, S.K. Rasheed c Chatterjee b Mukesh 46, Ricky Bhui c Shahbaz b Akash 83, C.R. Gnaneshwar c Shahbaz b Shami 7, Nitish Kumar Reddy c Akash b Mukesh 33, T. Vijay (batting) 1, K.V. Sasikanth (batting) 7; Extras: (b-9, lb-5, nb-8): 22; Total (for six wkts, in 80 overs): 264.

Fall of wickets: 1-58, 2-89, 3-129, 4-147, 5-255, 6-257.

Bengal bowling: Shami 17-4-38-1, Mukesh 18-5-50-3, Jaiswal 14-3-53-0, Akash 17-3-64-2, Shahbaz 14-1-45-0.

Toss: Bengal.