Uday Kaul (79) and Pankaj Dharmani (63) forged an unbeaten 117-run stand for the fourth wicket to power Punjab to 173 for three in reply to Andhra Pradesh's first innings total of 334 on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match in Amritsar on Sunday.
Resuming at the overnight score of 294 for six, the visitors lost the remaining four wickets of M Faiq (37), G Shankara Rao (26), D Kalyankrishna (17) and P Vijay Kumar (0) for the addition of 40 runs.
In reply, Punjab made a bad start losing the opening pair of Karan Goel (0) and Ravneet Rickey (5) at the scores of seven and 16 respectively.
The hosts then lost the third wicket of Ravinder Singh (18) when the scoreboard read 56.
But Kaul and Dharmani joined hands to steady the boat and bring the hosts back into the game. Punjab was trailing by 161 runs with seven wickets in hand.
For Andhra, Israel Raju (2 for 33) and D Kalyankrishna (1 for 39) were the wicket takers.
Andhra Pradesh 1st innings (Overnight 294 for 6)
Hemal Watekar lbw b Goel 137
LNP Reddy lbw b Gagandeep Singh 8
ASK Varma c Dharmani b Gagandeep Singh 6
Y Gnaneswara Rao c Goel b Gagandeep Singh 1
MSK Prasad b Kakkar 51
B Sumanth c Goel b Amanpreet Singh 35
G Shankara Rao c Gagandeep Singh b Gony 26
Mohd Faiq lbw b Gagandeep Singh 37
D Kalyankrishna c Dharmani b Kakkar 17
Israel Raju not out 4
P Vijay Kumar lbw b Kakkar 0
Extras (b-1, lb-5, nb-6) 12
Total (all out in 105.3 overs) 334
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-17, 3-19, 4-161, 5-244, 6-258, 7-311, 8-317, 9-334.
Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 25.4-7-53-4; Manpreet Gony 30-4-107-1; Amanpreet Singh 21-3-76-1; Sarabjit Ladda 10-0-52-0; Ankur Kakkar 17.3-6-34-3; Karan Goel 1.2-0-6-1.
Punjab first innings:
Ravneet Singh Ricky c Prasad b Raju 5
Karan Goel lbw b Kalyankrishna 0
Ravinder Singh c Prasad b Raju 18
Uday Kaul batting 79
Pankaj Dharmani batting 63
Extras (lb-4, w-1, nb-3) 8
Total (for 3 wickets in 72 overs) 173
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-16, 3-56.
Bowling: D Kalyankrishna 15-4-39-1; P Vijay Kumar 16-5-27-0; Israel Raju 10-0-33-2; Hemal Watekar 9-2-31-0; Mohd Faiq 8-2-18-0; G Shankara Rao 14-7-21-0.
