Ranji Trophy 2018-19: Ricky Bhui's unbeaten 150 gets Andhra going

Resuming at its overnight score of 54 for three in reply to Punjab first innings score of 414, Andhra owed its wonderful fightback to Ricky Bhui's two crucial century partnerships on Saturday.

Ricky Bhui's impressive knock (150 batting, 291b, 13 x 4, 4 x 6) helped Andhra move closer to achieving its first objective -  taking the first innings lead

Ricky Bhui's impressive knock (150 batting, 291b, 13 x 4, 4 x 6) helped Andhra move closer to achieving its first objective -  taking the first innings lead - against Punjab as it finished the third day at 327 for five at close of play in the four-day Ranji Trophy Group B match at the ACA-VDCA Stadium, here, on Saturday.

Resuming at its overnight score of 54 for three in reply to Punjab first innings score of 414, Andhra owed its wonderful fightback to Ricky Bhui's two crucial century partnerships on Saturday.

First, 22-year-old Bhui, who cracked his fifth first-class century, strung together a stand of 151 runs for the fourth wicket with K.S. Bharat off 354 balls and then, another significant stand of 132 for the fifth wicket with B. Sumanth, which effectively dashed Punjab hopes of coming back into the game strongly.

AS IT HAPPENED: Ranji Trophy 2018-19, Day 3

To the delight of Andhra camp, Bhui found in able foils Bharat (76, 175b, 6 x 4, 1 x 6) and B. Sumanth (54, 124b, 5 x 4, 1 x 6) who showed fine temperament and treated the bowling on merit.

The two were largely successful in keeping the Punjab bowling at bay as the pace trio of Siddharth Kaul, Barinder Sran and Sanvir Singh failed to make any serious impact on Saturday, on a pitch which showed no signs of any wear and tear.

For Punjab, the pick of the bowlers was the spinner Mayank Markande who finished the day with a creditable three-wicket haul.

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The scores:

Punjab - 1st innings: 414.

Andhra - 1st innings: D.B. Prasanth lbw b Kaul 1, K. Ashwin Hebbar b Markande 17, Hanuma Vihari c Jiwanjot b Sran 19, Ricky Bhui batting 150, K.S. Bharat c Anmolpreet b Markande 76, B. Sumanth c Anmolpreet b Markande 54, Karn Sharma batting 4.

Extras: (lb-2, nb-1, w-3) 6.

Total: (for five wickets in 116 overs) 327.

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-39, 3-39, 4-190, 5-322.

Punjab bowling: Siddharth Kaul 23-9-45-1, Barinder Sran 18-2-61-1, Sanvir Singh 14-3-30-0, Markande 38-9-96-3, Arpit Pannu 12-0-46-0, Gurkeerat Singh 9-1-43-0, Mandeep Singh 2-1-4-0.