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Good knock by Venugopala

Principal Correspondent

ANANTAPUR: The Kerala bowlers fought back to reduce Andhra to 215 for six in 90 overs at the end of the first day of their Ranji Trophy Plate Group ‘B' match at RDT Stadium here on Wednesday.

Kerala skipper Raiphy Vincent Gomez struck twice in three overs after tea to get rid of the well-set Venugopala Rao (77, 10x4, 1x6) and B. Sumanth (35) to put Andhra on the backfoot.

It was a mature knock by Venugopala. He was in a punishing mood against the spinners, picking the length perfectly. He sent off-spinner Rohan Prem for a huge six over long-off and cut left-arm spinner Sreekumar Nair to the fence.

Earlier, Kerala elected to field and drew first blood when debutant medium-pacer P. Antaf rattled L.N. Prasad Reddy's stumps.

In the 19th over, P. Parameswaran trapped skipper Watekar in front, leaving Andhra at 70 for two in lunch.

A.S.K. Varma, who had a reprieve when Rakesh failed to latch on to a sharp catch at slip, looked tentative throughout his 155-minute stay. Kerala managed to break the 52-run partnership between Venugopala and Varma when Sreekumar had Varma caught at silly point in his first over.

Both teams observed a two-minute silence in memory of former Test cricketer T.E. Srinivasan who passed away in Chennai on Monday.

The scores:

Andhra — 1st innings: H. Watekar lbw b Parameswaran 17, L.N. Prasad Reddy b Antaf 5, A.S.K. Varma c Hegde b Sreekumar 28, Y. Venugopala Rao lbw b Gomez 77, B. Sumanth lbw b Gomez 35, A.G. Pradeep (batting) 15, Y. Gnaneswara Rao c Tejas b Parameswaran 17, D. Siva Kumar (batting) 8; Extras (b-3, lb-8, nb-2): 13; Total (for six wkts. in 90 overs): 215.

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-41, 3-93, 4-172, 5-177, 6-199.

Kerala bowling: Antaf 19-5-45-1, Parameswaran 24-7-54-2, Cheruvathur 20-8-24-0, Gomez 14-8-28-2, Sreekumar 5-1-27-1, Prem 8-2-26-0 .

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