Andhra Pradesh well-placed

Andhra Pradesh were in the driver's seat after bundling out Madhya Pradesh for 287 runs and securing a 78-run first innings lead on the penultimate day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match in Indore on Tuesday.

In their second innings, AP were cruising at 74 for no loss for an overall lead of 148 runs.

The Madhya Pradesh batsmen were unable to consolidate on the overnight score of 155 for four and lost wickets at regular intervals to be bundled out for 287.

Abbas Ali (72, 4x12) and Nikhil Patwardhan resumed the MP innings on a confident note and took the score to 211. However, Patwardhan (28) was caught behind by MSK Prasad off Y Gopal Rao to give AP the much-needed breakthrough.

Rao also claimed the wickets of Rishi Yengde (10) and Shantanu Pitre (0), while V V V Appa Rao got the wickets of Abbas Ali, Sanjay Pandey (5) and Narendra Hirwani (2) to restrict the hosts to 287. Yogesh Golwalaker remained not out on 18.

Opening Andhra's second innings, Amit Pathak (48, 4x7, 6x1) and L N Prasada Reddy (23 4x3) added 74 runs for the unbeaten first wicket partnership.

In the first innings Andhra had scored 361.