Ranji Trophy 2019-20 | AP v SAUR - Dominant Saurashtra set up semis clash against Gujarat
Saurashtra set up a semi-final clash against an in-form Gujarat side, starting on February 29, courtesy a first-innings lead in the quarter-final against Andhra. For his all-round performance — 121 and 23 with the bat, two for 14 with the ball — Chirag Jani was adjudged the Man of the Match.
The writing has been on the wall in the Andhra-Saurashtra clash and both teams have just been going through the motions for at least two days now. Despite a much-improved second-innings showing, there was no coming back from a 283-run first-innings deficit, followed by a further 426 runs conceded the second time out.
Resuming the day at 375 for nine, tailenders Chetan Sakariya and Jaydev Unadkat continued to frustrate the Andhra bowlers, adding 51 more to the total, before Karan Shinde eventually dismissed the visiting skipper.
Set a ridiculous total of 710, the hosts produced a comparatively fluent performance with the bat, going past their first-innings total of 136 with ease. By the time the captains shook hands, Andhra had reached 149 for four — largely courtesy of their skipper Srikar Bharat’s unbeaten half-century.
Brief scores: Saurashtra 419 all-out in 146.5 overs (Chirag Jani 121; Yarra Prithviraj 3-51) & 426 all-out in 138 overs (Prerak Mankad 85; Jyothi Sai Krishna 4-74) drew against Andhra 136 all-out in 78.2 overs (CR Gnaneshwar 43; Jaydev Unadkat 4-42) & 149/4 (Srikar Bharat 55*; Prerak Mankad 2-8).