Sensible batting by Yere Goud and Tilak Naidu saw former champions Karnataka avoid defeat at the hands of Andhra, with their Ranji Trophy elite Group-A match ending in a draw in Anantpur on Thursday.

Andhra, after setting a difficult target of 405, failed to press for an outright victory as the tourists made 204, losing seven wickets in 104 overs, when both captains agreed for a draw.

Andhra gained two points from the first innings lead and took their tally to 12 points from five games, just behind leaders Baroda who have 13 points from the same number of games.

Andhra have two more assignments against Delhi at Vijayawada from January 2 and Uttar Pradesh at Kanpur beginning on January 10.

Scorecard

Andhra 1st innings 238

Karnataka 1st innings 111

Andhra 2nd innings 282-9 declared

Karnataka 2nd innings
Rowland c Reddy b Vijay Kumar 2
Uthappa c Sumanth b Kalyankrishna 52
Chougule c sub b Vijay Kumar 4
Appanna c MSK Prasad b Kalyankrishna 2
Raghu c MSK Prasad b Vijay Kumar 6
Goud c Faiq b Venugopal Rao 42
Naidu (not out) 53
Binny c Varma b Vijay Kumar 12
Joshi (not out) 11
Extras (b 9, lb 6, w 2, nb 3) 20
Total (7 wickets; 104 overs) 204
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-31, 3-60, 4-67, 5-94, 6-145, 7-164.

Bowling: Sahabuddin 25-11-53-0, Kalyankrishna 26-10-45-2, Vijay Kumar 31-10-61-4, Faiq 5-2-10-0, RVC Prasad 2-2-0-0, Varma 1-0-1-0, Venugopala Rao 14-8-19-1.