Medium-pacers helped Andhra Pradesh bag Day 1 honours after bundling out Uttar Pradesh for 170 in their Group B Ranji Trophy cricket encounter, here today.
Putting UP into bat, Andhra bowlers justified their captain's faith by picking regular wickets as the visiting batting line-up fell like a pack of cards in 61.5 overs.
Andhra also started with a strong response to end the day on 77 for no loss with openers Prasanth Kumar (21 not out) and wicketkkeper-batsman Srikar Bharat (56 not out) in complete control.
Earlier the UP batsmen faltered against a disciplined Andhra attack only to see opener Tanmay Srivastava (42) and skipper Praveen Kumar (47) play defiant knocks to give some respect to the scoreline.
Cheepurapalli Stephen and Siva Kumar shared three wickets apiece, Paidikalva Vijaykumar bagged two wickets while new-ball bowlers Bandara Ayyappa and KV Sasikanth picked up a wicket each.
Brief Scores:
Uttar Pradesh 170 all out in 61.5 overs (Tanmay Srivastava 42, Praveen Kumar 47; Cheepurapalli Stephen 3-41, Siva Kumar 3-29)
Andhra Pradesh 77/0 in 24 overs (Prasanth Kumar 21 not out, Srikar Bharat 56 not out; Praveen Kumar 0-24).
