Pune, Dec 14 Maramreddy Hemanth Reddy smashed a blistering unbeaten century to script Andhra’s first win of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League stage and eliminate Punjab from being in contention for the final.
At the MCA Cricket Stadium in Gahunje, Hemanth hammered 109 off 53 balls, his first T20I century and steered Andhra to a five-wicket victory by successfully hunting down 206 with a ball to spare. Put into batting first, Punjab assembled a strong total through collective contributions.
Opener Harnoor Singh’s 42 off 30 balls laid the foundation for the high score before Anmolpreet Singh (47 off 27 balls), Ramandeep Singh (43 off 18 balls) and Salil Arora (42 not out off 22 balls) injected momentum in the middle and death overs.
For Andhra, seam-bowling all-rounder Nitish Reddy, who took a hat-trick in the previous game against Madhya Pradesh, returned with figures of 1-39 while left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar took 1-24.
The chase began in turmoil for Andhra, as they were reduced to 12/3 and later 56/5 in the ninth over, with Nitish falling for a duck. From that precarious position, Hemanth and SDNV Prasad turned the contest around with a decisive 155-run stand for the sixth wicket.
Reddy’s innings featured 11 fours and seven sixes, while Prasad’s unbeaten 53 off 35 balls included two fours and four sixes, as the pair carried Andhra home in a proper run-fest. Andhra will next take on an in-form Jharkhand in their final Super League stage match on Tuesday.
Brief Scores: Punjab 205/5 in 20 overs (Anmolpreet Singh 47, Ramandeep Singh 43; Saurabh Kumar 1-24, Nitish Kumar Reddy 1-39) lost to Andhra 211/5 in 19.5 overs (M Hemanth Reddy 109 not out, SDNV Prasad 53 not out, Gurnoor Brar 3-23, Ayush Goyal 1-37) by five wickets
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