Sanjay Bangar’s dismissal at the fag end of the day summed up the day for Railways. The skipper was given out leg-before to a D Kalyankrishna delivery that was clearly drifting down leg by umpire S Pathak. Right through the day, the hosts had found themselves at the wrong end of some poor umpiring, but still ended the first day of their Elite Division clash against Andhra slightly ahead, having bowled out the visitors for 208 in the first innings.

Andhra, electing to bat first, could have been two down for nothing very early in the day as both openers Hemal Watekar and N Prasad Reddy were lucky to be given not out in Railways’ speedster Anureet Singh’s first over. But leg-spinner Karan Sharma bagged four wickets, including two in the first session, while Murali Kartik and Kulamani Parida chipped in with three and two respectively, to nullify the advantage Andhra had of making first use of the pitch.

At one point, the visitors were in serious danger of getting bowled out for well under 200, having been reduced to 138 for 6 just after lunch. But fighting half-centuries from skipper Y Gnaneswar Rao (50) and M Suresh (51 n.o.), ensured that their bowlers had something to bowl at.

Brief scores: Andhra 208 all out in 78.1 overs (M Suresh 51 not out, Gnaneswar Rao 50, Karan Sharma 4/37, Murali Kartik 3/72); Railways 8/1 in 10 overs (D Kalyankrishna 1/1)