Mohammad Faiq and A G Pradeep came to the rescue of Andhra, who were stuttering at 107 for eight in their first innings against Karnataka in Ranji Trophy Elite Group A encounter in Bangalore on Saturday.

The duo put on 129 runs for the ninth wicket before Andhra were all out for 237, after opting to bat first at the RSI grounds.

Faiq scored 74, inclusive of nine fours and a six, while Pradeep hit nine boundaries in his 59, as Karnataka's bowlers struggled to polish off the tail.

Left-arm off-spinner Sunil Joshi was the wrecker-in-chief, taking five wickets for 78 runs.

Karnataka were 23 without loss at stumps.

Scorecard:

Andhra (1st innings):
A Pathak b Ganesh 15
P Reddy run out (Rowland) 3
A Varma run out (Aiyappa) 25
Y Venugopal Rao c Naidu b Joshi 34
MSK Prasad c Joshi b Vinay Kumar 13
Y Gnaneswara Rao c Uthappa b Joshi 1
R Prasad b Vinay Kumar 1
A Pradeep c Binny b Joshi 59
K Sahabuddin b Joshi 3
M Faiq lbw Joshi 74
D Kalyankrishna not out 0

Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 1, nb 4) 9

Total (all out in 82 overs) 237

Fall of wickets: 11-1, 24-2, 73-3, 81-4, 84-5, 85-6, 101-7, 107-8, 236-9, 237-10.

Bowling: D Ganesh 13-2-50-1, Vinay Kumar 19-5-42-2, S Binny 7-0-29-0, S Joshi 30-8-78-5, N Aiyappa 11-3-21-0, C Raghu 2 0 13 0

Karnataka (1st innings):
R Uthappa not out 6
B Rowland not out 1

Extras (lb 5, nb 1) 6

Total (for no loss in 6 overs) 23

To bat: S Somasunder, V Naidu, Vijay Bharadwaj, S Binny, C Raghu, S Joshi, D Ganesh, R Vinay Kumar, N Aiyappa.

Bowling:  K Sahabuddin 3-0-7-0, D Kalyankrishna 2-0-11-0, M Faiq 1-1-0-0