India’s prestigious domestic tournament The Ranji Trophy got underway on Monday, December 9. This is the 86th edition of the Ranji Trophy. In the previous edition, Vidarbha defeated Saurashtra to become only the 6th team to retain the Ranji Trophy title.
The top five teams from Group A and Group B combined will progress to the knockouts with the top two from Group C and the top team from the plate group joining them.
The defending champions were taking on Andhra Pradesh, however, the start of play was delayed as a snake entered the field. The official Twitter handle of BCCI Domestic posted a video of a snake crawling around in the field.
“SNAKE STOPS PLAY! There was a visitor on the field to delay the start of the match,” tweeted BCCI Domestic.
SNAKE STOPS PLAY! There was a visitor on the field to delay the start of the match.
Follow it live – https://t.co/MrXmWO1GFo#APvVID @paytm #RanjiTrophy pic.twitter.com/1GptRSyUHq
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) December 9, 2019
Fortunately, the match resumed soon, and Vidharbha, under the leadership of Faiz Faizal, won the toss and elected to bowl first against Andhra, captained by Hanuma Vihari.
Andhra had the worst start as Rajneesh Gurbani from the opposition drew the first blood in the form of CR Ganeshwar in the 5th over. Ganeshwar could score only eight runs. When Andhra reached 38, they lost another opener. Yash Thakur clean bowled Prasanth Kumar for ten runs.
A clinical bowling performance by Vidarbha helped them bowl out Andhra for a paltry 211. Right from the toss and to the selection of bowlers, everything worked for skipper Fazal. Vidarbha kept getting wickets at regular intervals, and that helped them to clean things up in the post-tea session.
End Innings: Andhra – 211/10 in 73.6 overs (Ayyappa Bandaru 22 off 23, Stephen 1 off 3) #APvVID @paytm #RanjiTrophy
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) December 9, 2019
