Three years after he had destroyed Kerala on a minefield, Shubham Sharma once again relished the favourable conditions at the KCA-St. Xavier’s College ground to bowl Rajasthan to a comprehensive 158-run win over Andhra in the Ranji Trophy Group E match here on Sunday.
Andhra, resuming the day at 100 for four in pursuit of a daunting target of 368, was dismissed for 208 half-an-hour before lunch on the final day. Like in the first innings, Shubham (4/32) and Aniket Choudhary (3/50) were again the standout bowlers for Rajasthan.
On a pitch with variable bounce, Shubham was lethal and took three wickets on the final day to fast-track Andhra’s capitulation. The overnight pair of Ricky Bhui and Y. Sandeep started the day positively, punishing the loose deliveries. However, Aniket Choudhary made the ball to rear uncomfortably forcing Ricky (39) to fend a catch to Yash Kothari at short leg and it started the slide. Sandeep’s (43) aggressive intent against Anirudh Singh ended in a regulation catch to Tanveer Haq at long on. The dismissal of the overnight batters in space of one over effectively ended the chase but the seventh wicket pair of P. Tapaswini (44) and Manish Golamaru (29) played with freedom. Both the batters threw caution to wind and attacked the Rajasthan spinners to add 67 runs for the seventh wicket.
The duo hardly ran and struck 10 boundaries and a six between them but Yash Kothari took a sharp catch at short leg to dismiss Manish off Shubham to end the stand. Tapswini and Sasikanth struck a few lusty blows to help Rajasthan cross 200. However, Shubham ensured that the tail didn’t wag with twin strikes in his 12 over. Tapswini’s cheeky reverse sweep failed to connect the ball which rattled his timber and Vijay was snapped up by Yash Kothari at short leg. Tanveer Haq had Stephen edging a catch to Rajesh Bishnoi in the slips to complete the rout. Rajasthan captain Ashok Meneria was chosen as the man-of-the-match. Coach Nikhil Doru was happy with the win and said his team was able to execute their plans to perfection and complimented his bowlers especially the medium pacers for getting early breakthroughs in this match.
The scores
Rajasthan – Ist innings: 275
Andhra – Ist innings: 224
Rajasthan 2 innings: 316
Andhra 2 innings: C.R. Gnaneshwar c Bishnoi b Tanveer 18, U.M.S. Girinath c Meneria b Aniket 1, Karan Shinde c Manender b Aniket 5, K.S. Bharat c Meneria b Shubham 6, Ricky Bhui c Kothari b Aniket 39, Y. Sandeep c Tanveer b Manish 43, P. Tapaswini b Shubham 44, Manish c Kothari b Shubham 29, K.V. Sasikanth not out 15, T.Vijay c Kothari b Shubham 0, Stephen c Bishnoi b Tanveer 0.
Extras (b3, lb5, w 1): 9
Total (all out in 53.3 overs): 209
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-25, 3-27, 4-41, 5-120, 6-120, 7-187, 8-208, 9-208
Rajasthan bowling:
Aniket 14-2-50-3, Tanveer 13.3-3-62-2, Shubham 12-3-32-4, Manav 7-1-25-0, Anirudh 7-0-32-1.
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