Madhya Pradesh’s fortunes spiralled from great to worse in a span of three sessions as Andhra rode on Hanuma Vihari’s unbeaten 43 (109b, 4x4) to inch closer to its first-ever Ranji Trophy semifinals.
In pursuit of 170 at the Holkar Stadium on Sunday, Andhra had a jittery start, losing openers K. Revanth Reddy and DB Prashanth Kumar with just 20 runs on the board.
However, Vihari weathered the storm and forged key partnerships with Nithish Reddy and Ricky Bhui to keep the visiting team in the hunt. He wasn’t in a hurry to score runs; rather on a surface that had little help for the bowlers as the day progressed, Vihari decided to hang in there and deal in singles.
Even though Saransh Jain cleaned up Bhui at the fag end, Vihari stuck to his natural game to avoid slip-ups. As Madhya Pradesh made desperate efforts by introducing Anubhav Agarwal and Kumar Kartikeya from both ends, the pace-spin combination could not break Vihari’s momentum. Pairing with the seasoned Karan Shinde, the India international guided the team to 95 for four at Stumps on the third day, with 75 runs required for a historic win.
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While Vihari took the centrestage in the last couple of sessions, the morning belonged to Andhra’s fast bowlers - Nithish (4 for 28) and K.V. Sasikanth (3 for 20). Taking a leaf out of their Madhya Pradesh counterparts, both Nithish and Sasikanth bowled stump to stump, and the strategy paid off as the home side was bundled out for 107.
Sasikanth found an early breakthrough by rattling Yash Dubey’s off-stump before Nithish joined in with a sharp return catch of Harsh Gawali. Venkatesh Iyer failed to capitalise on an early reprieve and was caught behind by Revanth off the second ball of Sasikanth’s second spell.
As MP batters lacked intent, left-arm spinner Lalith Mohan tightened the noose and claimed his 100th wicket by dismissing Saransh.
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