Bengal score 409, Andhra reach 119/3

Visakhapatnam: Andhra started their long haul to overtake Bengal’s first innings total of 409 and were 119 for three at stumps on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Group B league match at the ACA-VDCA stadium here on Saturday.Openers DB Prasanth Kumar and CR Gnaneshwar put on 64 runs. Prasanth then added 48 for the second wicket with SK Rasheed before falling to debutant Mohammed Kaif. This is the latter’s first wicket. Kaif is the brother of Indian pacer Md Shami. A little while later, SK Rasheed fell to Akash Deep and the day’s proceedings came to an end.Earlier wicketkeeper Abhishek Porel (70) and his 41-run stand for the last wicket with Ishan Porel helped Bengal go past the 400-mark after they resumed at 289 for four. The stand helped Bengal after Kaif failed to open his account and captain Manoj Tiwari, Karan Lal, Pradipta Pramanik and Akash Deep did not stay long. A Lalith Mohan and KV Sasikanth took two wickets each while Shoaib Md Khan and Nitish Kumar Reddy had one each in the morning. Brief scores: Bengal 409 in 126.2 overs (S Paul 96, A Majumdar 125, A porel 70; Lalith Mohan 4/134, Shoaib 2/63, Sasikanth 2/59) vs Andhra 119/3 in 48.1 overs (CR Gnaneshwar 33, Prashanth Kumar 41, Rasheed 32).