Andhra Pradesh's batsmen made amends for their first innings failure with a determined final day's performance, which earned them an honourable draw against former champions Railways in Delhi on Monday.
At the end of the four-day Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'A' cricket match, Railways might have walked away with two points by virtue of their first innings lead but Abhay Sharma and his men will take them more as a consolation. For, after reducing the visitors to 260 for 7 at tea and Andhra only 81 ahead, the former champions would have expected themselves to clean up the tail and have a go at the target in the remaining hour or so.
But what followed was one of those defiant batting performance from a No. 9 batsman G Shanakararao (53 not out) that should have made his team feel like moral victors in the end.
Captain M S K Prasad (58 not out) once again steered the ship through dangerous waters with a steady hand. The former India player showed considerable maturity in handling the role of captaincy, and today's innings proved how well he had taken to the new responsibility.
Prasad added 70 with R V Ch Prasad for the seventh wicket and another 77 for the unbroken eighth-wicket with Shanakararao.
Harvinder Singh (4 for 76) struck a double blow in the morning and then returned to dismiss the well-settled Y Venugopalarao (45) and R V Ch Prasad (36), but it was clear that Railways missed the services of left-arm spinner Murali Kartik.
Scoreboard
Andhra (1st innings): 262
Railways (1st innings): 441 for 8 decl.
Andhra (2nd innings):
A Pathak LBW T P Singh 39
M Suresh LBW Harvinder Singh 38
H Watekar c Raja Ali b Khanolkar 31
Fiaz Ahmed LBW Harvinder Singh 0
Y Venugopalarao b Harvinder Singh 45
M S K Prasad not out 58
K S Shahabuddin c Parida b Khanolkar 15
R V Ch Prasad c Goud b Harvinder Singh 36
G Shankararao not out 53
Extras: (b-6, lb-10, w-6) 22
Total: (for 7 wickets in 108 overs) 337
Fall of wickets: 1-72, 2-97, 3-104, 4-169, 5-169, 6-190, 7-260.
Bowling: Harvinder Singh 28-7-76-4, J P Yadav 20-8-44-0, Sanjay Bangar 12-1-41-0, Kulamani Parida 20-3-60-0, Tejinder Pal Singh 9-1-28-1, Sidharth Verma 5-0-28-0, Shreyas Khanolkar 12-1-44-2, Yere Goud 1-1-0-0, Amit Pagnis 1-1-0-0.