RP Singh rips apart Andhra batting

Finally, Uttar Pradesh seems to have found their groove on Wednesday. Though it came too late for the defending champions against Andhra, it still may help them avoid a relegation.

Using the early morning helpful conditions, the hosts, led by RP Singh, ripped apart the Andhra line-up, bundling them out for 111.

In reply, the hosts were 155/4 at stumps, drawn early because of bad light, with Suresh Raina (50) and Ravikant Shukla (4) at the crease.

Making no experiments with the batting order, like he did in the earlier matches, UP captain Mohd Kaif relied on Rohit Prakash and Shivakant Shukla to began the innings.

Rohit slammed two consecutive fours off Shahabuddin's first two deliveries of the innings, but he departed soon in the third over, trying to leave a Shahabuddin delivery and being surprised when it swung back to uproot his off-stump.

Fellow opener Shivakant smashed three fours to accelerate the run-rate but failed to read P Vijay Kumar's rising delivery and gave a simple catch to G Rao in the slips.

Kaif never looked comfortable during his short innings and eventually edged Shahabuddin for MSK Prasad to take a low catch. His 26 runs came off 51 balls with five hits to the fence.

Scoreboard

Andhra 1st innings 111 all out (M Sai 22, MSK Prasad 20; RP Singh 4/30, P Kumar 4/47).

Uttar Pradesh 1st innings 155/4 (M Kaif 26, S Raina batting 50, A Murtaza 36, ; Sahabuddin 2/51.