An 83-run stand for the fourth wicket between Siddharth Verma and Sachin Rana enabled Haryana to coast to 196 for 6 on the opening day of the four-day Elite group 'B' Ranji Trophy match against hosts Andhra being played in Ananthapur on Sunday.

- Ranji Trophy 2005-06: Complete coverage

Put in to bat, Haryana lost the first three wickets for 26 runs with speedsters K S Sahabuddin and Isreal Raju exploiting the morning moisture to their advantage.

However, Verma and Rana stemmed the rot with their positive approach and added 83 runs before Verma edged a rising delivery of Gnaneswara Rao into the hands of wicketkeeper MSK Prasad for a well-made 45 which included six hits to the fence. Raju dismissed Rana for 52.

P Sahu was unbeaten on 21 at stumps.

For Andhra, Sahabuddin, Raju and Rao claimed two wickets each.

Scorecard:

Haryana 1st innings
Sandeep Singh c Prasad b Sahabuddin 4
Sumit Sharma c Prasad b Raju 13
D Joon c Prasad b Sahabuddin 1
S Verma c Prasad b Gnaneswara Rao 45
S Rana c Prasad b Raju 52
P Sahu not out 35
Joginder Sharma c Raju b Gnaneswara Rao 9
M Rawat not out 21
Extras (lb 6, w 6, nb 4) 16
Total (6 wickets, 90 overs) 196

To Bat: G Vashisht, A Mishra, J Malik.

FoW: 1-16, 2-25, 3-26, 4-109, 5-147, 6-161.

Bowling: Sahabuddin 19.2-6-34-2 (4nb, 2w), Kalyankrishna 17-3-46-0 (2w), Raju 21.4-12-27-2 (1w), Gnaneswara Rao 10-3-24-2 (1w), Venugopal Rao 12-4-34-0, Faiq 10-1-25-0

Andhra team:
Y Venugopal Rao, KS Sahabuddin, MSK Prasad, BBK Singh, K Kumarswamy, AT Rayudu, Y Gnaneswara Rao, M Faiq, D Kalyankrishna, I Raju, ASK Varma.