Andhra Pradesh were precariously placed at 112 for five in their first innings on the second day of the 'Elite' Gorup 'A' Ranji Trophy match against Uttar Pradesh in Kanpur on Wednesday.
Replying to UP's first innings score of 267 all out, Andhra were off to a horrendous start, losing four wickets with just 33 runs on the board.
M Suresh (5) MSK Prasad (4), Batekar (5) and I Srinivasan (24) returned to the pavilion without much resistance.
However, Andhra found a saviour in Gyaneshwar Rao, who was unbeaten on 68 at close of play.
Rv Ch Prasad was giving him company on six.
For Uttar Pradesh, A W Zaidi claimed three wickets while Ratnesh Mishra took one.
Earlier, Uttar Pradesh, who resumed at their overnight score of 179 for four, were helped by fine knocks by Gyanendra Pandey (97) and Suresh Suresh Raina (66) as they took the score to 267. Pandey was caught by Batekar off G S Rao on 97, which contained 12 boundaries. He contributed 181 runs in a fifth-wicket partnership with Suresh Raina.
Raina hit a fine half-century with the help of 15 boundaries and a six off 223 balls and 342 minutes.
But after the fall of Raina and Pandey, Prashant Malviya (0), Praveen Shukla (6), A W Zaidi (0) and Ratnesh Mishra (11 not out) departed one after the other as the team collapsed for 267 in 95.4 overs.
For Andhra Pradesh, Shahabuddin captured five wickets while Rv Ch Prasad took three. Gyaneshwar Rao scalped two.
