Uttarakhand finished on top of Elite Group E in the Ranji Trophy tournament despite going down to Andhra Pradesh by eight wickets in their final league match here on Saturday.
Services thrashed Rajasthan by 10 wickets in the other match in the group. Uttarakhand finished with 12 points followed by Andhra (9) and Services (8). Rajasthan ended up last with 6 points.
After dismissing Uttarakhand for 194, Andhra managed to secure a 32-run lead. Left-arm medium-pacer C V Stephen rocked Uttarakhand in the second innings with a five-wicket haul to send them crashing to 101 all out. Needing 70 runs for a win, Andhra eased home in 18 overs losing two wickets in the process.
Earlier in the day, resuming at 36 for 2, Uttarakhand slipped to 62 for 5 as Stephen picked up three wickets to take his innings haul to five.
S Ashish then took over with his left-arm spin and cleaned up the tail, dismissing Kunal Chandela (36), Saurabh Rawat, Mayank Mishra and Agrim Tiwari.
Andhra lost opener U Girinath for a duck in their chase but C R Gnaneshwar (42 not out) and Shaik Rasheed (20) took them close to victory before the latter fell. Gnaneshwar and captain RIcky Bhui (2 not out) saw Andhra home.
In the other match, Services, after taking a 209-run lead, shot out Rajasthan for 210 as Rahul Singh and Pulkit Narang bagged three wickets each.
Services got the required two runs for a well-deserved win against Rajasthan, which faltered after starting the tournament with a victory.
Brief scores: Uttarakhand 194 all out in 69.1 overs (Kunal Chandela 52, Kamal Singh 42, Bandaru Ayyappa 4 for 37, Prithvi Raj 3 for 27) and 101 all out in 51.4 overs (Kunal Chandela 36, C V Stephen 5 for 27, S Ashish 4 for 17) lost to Andhra 226 all out in 85 overs (C R Gnaneshwar 45, Shaik Rasheed 56, Ricky Bhui 33, D Dhapola 4 for 80) and 70 for 2 in 18 overs (Gnaneshwar 42 not out) by eight wickets. Andhra: 6 points, Uttarakhand: 0.
Rajasthan 92 all out in 45.2 overs (Ashok Menaria 31, Diwesh Pathania 3 for 24, Poonam Poonia 3 for 31) and 210 all out in 94.5 overs (Amitkumar Gautam 68, Ashok Menaria 39, Rahul Singh 3 for 57) lost to Services 301 all out in 113.2 overs (Rajat Paliwal 91, Ravi Chauhan 47, Shamser Yadav 60, MJ Suthar 4 for 82) and 2 for no loss. Services: 7 points, Rajasthan: 0.
