Nitish Reddy’s hat-trick goes in vain as Andhra lose to Madhya Pradesh

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s hat-trick gave Andhra hope, but Madhya Pradesh recovered from 14/3 to chase down 113 and win by four wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League stage. KS Bharat top-scored with 39 for Andhra

Pune: Seam bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy’s hat-trick gave Andhra a glimmer of hope, but Madhya Pradesh recovered from 14/3 to chase down 113 and win by four wickets in their first game of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Super League stage at the DY Patil Academy on Friday.

Reddy, who joined the Andhra team after being in India’s squads for Tests and ODIs against South Africa, struck in the third over to dismiss Harsh Gawli, Harpreet Bhatia and Rajat Patidar in quick succession. Soon after, Venkatesh Iyer’s dismissal left MP wobbling at 37/4.

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But a composed 73-run stand for the fifth wicket between Rishabh Chouhan and Rahul Batham steadied the chase. Chouhan made 47 off 43 balls with six fours, while Batham remained unbeaten on 35 off 32 deliveries to see MP home with 15 balls to spare and pick up four crucial points.

Earlier, Reddy had added 50 runs for the third wicket with wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat after Andhra slipped to 7/2. Bharat top-scored with 39 before being dismissed by Iyer, triggering a collapse that saw Andhra lose eight wickets for 55 runs and be bowled out for 112 in 19.1 overs.

For MP, Shivam Shukla claimed 4-23 while Tripuresh Singh took 3-31. Batham chipped in with two wickets, as four Andhra batters fell without scoring. Andhra’s next game will be against Punjab, while MP are slated to face Jharkhand on December 14.

Brief Scores: Andhra 112 all out in 19.1 overs (KS Bharat 39, Nitish Kumar Reddy 25; Shivam Shukla 4-23, Tripuresh Singh 3-31) lost to Madhya Pradesh 113/6 in 17.3 overs (Rishabh Chouhan 47, Rahul Batham 35 n.o.; Nitish Kumar Reddy 3-17, KV Sasikanth 1-12) by four wickets.