Ashish enables Andhra to take lead

His fine spell after tea sends Services batting into a tailspin

Left-arm spinner S. Ashish’s perseverance paid off as his fine spell after tea triggered a Services batting collapse and enabled Andhra snatch the first innings lead in their Ranji Trophy Group E match at the KCA-St. Xavier’s College ground here on Saturday. 

After playing the support cast to medium pacers in the morning session, Ashish (4/91) took three wickets in the post tea session to dismiss Services for 343 and give his side a lead of 46 runs.

Ashish and fellow spinner Y. Sandeep (2/54) couldn’t extract the same amount of bounce which Services’ spinner Pulkit Narang managed to get from the surface. Nevertheless, both the Andhra spinners kept pegging away and were rewarded for their discipline when they forced errors from the batters. 

The Services batters also contributed to their downfall through poor judgement and rash strokes.

In the last over before lunch, opener Ravi Chauhan, who had batted solidly for 87 and had added 73 runs for the fourth wicket with skipper Rajat Paliwal, shouldered arms to an innocuous delivery from off spinner Sandeep and was bowled. 

Paliwal, after adding 56 for the fifth wicket with Devender Lohchab, had to leave the field to attend to an injury. His replacement Arjun Sharma (1) didn’t last long as he was castled by Ashish and it started the slide.

After a breezy knock of 36, wicket-keeper Lohchab then slashed at a wide delivery from Sasikanth and was caught in the slips. Poonam Poonia (10) threw his wicket away with an ill-advised slog, while Narang was trapped in front — both fell to Ashish — as Services slipped from 252 for four to 283 for eight.