Abhishek Reddy slams maiden ton as Andhra eye 1st-innings lead against Jharkhand

Jamshedpur, Nov 17 (PTI) Opener Abhishek Reddy weathered a potent Jharkhand bowling attack by scoring a timely unbeaten century as Andhra made a strong bid to overhaul the hosts' first-innings total on day two of the Ranji Tropy Group A match, here Monday.

Jharkhand, whose innings folded up at 328 in 112.3 overs early during the day, saw themselves sweating and grimacing at stumps after 31-year-old Reddy struck his maiden century (103 not out off 156 balls) to guide Andhra to 224 for 2.

Andhra need just 104 runs to take the first-innings lead with eight wickets still intact.

Reddy, who has struck back-to-back half-centuries against Odisha and Tamil Nadu this season, came up with a valuable century knock just when his team needed stability at the top against a side that has emerged triumphant on the back of some brilliant bowling from Sahil Raj and Rishi Raj.

Reddy, who started his domestic career with Karnataka way back in 2015, took almost a decade to score his maiden century.

He shared a 94-run stand for the opening wicket with India Test keeper-batter Srikar Bharat (51) before batting stoutly with Shaik Rasheed (58) for a 122-run stand for the second wicket to put Andhra in a strong position.

Relying heavily on his ground strokes, Reddy struck 11 boundaries and just one maximum as Andhra made a strong bid to dislodge Jharkhand from the No.2 spot on the points table.

While Jharkhand are on 16 points after four games, Andhra are third with 14 points.

At stumps, young spin all-rounder Tripurana Vijay (6 not out) was giving Reddy company.

The morning session didn't bring huge cheers for Jharkhand with their last-four wickets falling for the addition of just 69 runs. Overnight batter Sahil Raj laboured to 50 (86 balls) as he added 43 runs on the second day before he was the last player to be dismissed.

Andhra's veteran pacer KV Sasikanth (4/67) and left-arm spinner Saurab Kumar (4/77) did well to restrict their opponents.

Brief Scores: In Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 328 in 112.3 overs (Sharandeep Singh 115, Virat Singh 41, Sahil Raj 50; KV Sasikanth 4/67, Saurabh Kumar 4/77) vs Andhra 224 for 2 in 60 overs (Abhishek Reddy 103 not out, Srikar Bharat 51, Shaik Rasheed 5).

In Bhubaneswar: Odisha 275 in 104.4 overs (Biplab Samantray 92, Anil Parida 118; Ronit More 3/64, Imliwati Lemtur 32/26, Rongsen Jonathan 3/67) & 16 for 2 in 6.5 overs vs Nagaland 161 in 57.3 overs (Dega Nischal 72; Rajesh Mohanty 349, Sambit Baral 3/33, Govinda Poddar 3/22).

In Coimbatore: Tamil Nadu 455 in 136.3 overs (Baba Indrajith 149, C Andre Siddarth 121, Guruswamy Ajitesh 86; Kunal Tyagi 2/51, Kartik Yadav 5/103) vs Uttar Pradesh 87 for 1 in 33 overs (Abhishek Goswami 54 not out).

In Nagpur: Vidarbha 169 in 58 overs & 126 for 3 in 43 overs (Dhruv Shorey 61) vs Baroda 166 all out in 72.2 overs (Vishnu Solanki 59 not out; Nachiket Bhute 3/24, Ganesh Bhosle 3/30, Parth Rekhade 3/50). PTI AM AM AT AT