TN pile on massive 474, Andhra 21 for one

Chennai, Dec 2 (UNI) Andhra crawled to 21 for one, including five penalty runs, losing one wicket in reply to Tamil Nadu's massive first innings score of 474 for 9 declared when play was called off due to bad light on the second of the Elite Group A Ranji trophy league match at the M A Chidambaram stadium here today.

Opener M S K Prasad (8) was at the wicket with A S K Varma after Tamil Nadu's left arm spinner S Vidhyut, got rid off the other Andhra opener L N Prasad Reddy (4, 23 balls) forcing him to edge a catch to debutant stumper K Varunkumar.

Earlier, spearheaded by opener M Vijay's maiden Ranji century knock of 164 (386 balls, 18 fours, two sixes) and his 143 run stand for the fifth wicket with left hander S Sharath (53, 165 balls, five fours), Tamil Nadu badly needing to force an outright win after having fared poorly in the opening match against Delhi, declared their first innings at 474 losing nine wickets, 26 minutes after tea.

Resuming at the overnight score of 260 for 4, Tamil Nadu batted on at snail's pace and accumulated the runs, in the process losing Vijay Sharath, Yo Mahesh (18), Aashish Kapoor (4) and R Naresh (20). K Varunkumar remained not out on 37 (98 balls, one four) and put on 35 runs for the seventh wicket with Yo Mahes in 16.2 overs.

The Tamil Nadu innings swelled with the help of another 36 runs stand for the ninth wicket between Varun and Naresh (20).

However, skipper Badrinath applied the closure after Naresh was castled by Andhra skipper, Venugopala Rao.

Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu 474-9 decl ( M Vijay 179, S Sharath 53, V Arunkumar 37 n.o) vs Andhra 21 1.

UNI VV PDS RK1835