Pawar scalps 7 but Reddy's ton puts Andhra in command

Vadodara, Dec 18 (UNI) Opener L N Prasad Reddy cracked a magnificent 148 to propel Andhra Pradesh to a commanding position of 342 against hosts Vadodara on the second day of their four-day Super League Ranji Trophy Group 'A' match being played at the Motibaug palace ground here today.

In reply, Vadodara who opened their innings with Connor Williams (19) and Satyajit Parab (12) were 33 for no loss. Reddy, who resumed with his overnight score of 72 in the side's total of 170 for 4 this morning, showed his batting prowess as he held up one end for nearly 11 hours defying both pace and spin attack of the opponents.

The marathon 656-minute knock finally came to an end 33 minutes after tea when he was run out by Connor Williams trying to steal a single with eight down D Kalyan Krishna off the bowling of left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar, who bowled spendidly to come up a carrer best haul of seven for 87.

Batting with dogged determination, the young Andhra opener shared two more half century partnership of 54 and 70 runs with B Sumanth (26) and Mohammad Faiq (41, 4x4,) for the fifth and eighth wicket respectively to put the visitors in a commanding position. The Vadodara leggie Pawar, who had bagged the first two wickets of opener M S K Prasad and A S K Varma yesterday conceding 45 runs, today claimed the remaining 5 wickets to return an impressive career best figure of 48-12-87-7.

After Reddy was run out for 148 with 12 boundaries making the scoreboard 9 for 341, Andhra's first innings folded up at 342 in the same over as medium pacer P Vijay Kumar returned with a duck facing the very first ball on his Ranji debut here.

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