Sachin Baby and Akshay put Kerala in a comfortable position against Bengal
The duo adds 153 runs in an unbroken partnership for the fifth wicket; Akash Deep is the most impressive Bengal bowler
reaching his century.
RANJI SCORES, ROUND 6, DAY 1
DElite: Group-A: At Jaipur:
Saurashtra 242/4 in 89.3 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 110, Sheldon Jackson 78 batting) vs Rajasthan.
Toss: Saurashtra. At Ahmedabad: Manipur 67 in 34.2 overs vs Services 191/3 in 54 overs (Ravi Chauhan 87 batting, Rajat Paliwal 62 batting). Toss: Manipur.
At Jamshedpur: Haryana 338/6 in 89 overs (Ankit Kumar 109, Himanshu Rana 82, Rahul Tewatia 51 batting) vs Jharkhand. Toss: Haryana.
At Pune: Maharashtra 208 in 56.4 overs vs Vidarbha 111/1 in 24 overs (Dhruv Shorey 55 batting). Toss: Vidarbha.
Group-B: At Vizianagaram:
Andhra 236/4 in 80 overs (KV Sasikanth 72, Ricky Bhui 90 batting, Karan Shinde 45 batting) vs Uttar Pradesh. Toss: UP. At Raipur: Mumbai 310/4 in 86 overs (Prithvi Shaw 159, Bhupen Lalwani 102) vs Chhattisgarh.
Toss: Mumbai.
At Thumba: Kerala 265/4 in 90 overs (Jalaj Saxena 40, Sachin Baby 110 batting, Akshay Chandran 76 batting) vs Bengal.
Toss: Kerala.
At Guwahati: Assam 235/5 in 86 overs (Parvej Musaraf 89, Abhishek Thakuri 77 batting) vs Bihar. Toss: Bihar.
Group-C: At Chandigarh:
Chandigarh 282/6 in 90 overs (Manan Vohra 134, Ankit Kaushik 76) vs Tripura. Toss: Chandigarh. At Surat: Railways 293/9 in 90 overs (Suraj Ahuja 81, Upendra Yadav 91) vs Goa. Toss: Goa. At Mohali: Gujarat 168/4 in 53 overs (Priyank Panchal 77, Aditya Patel 58) vs Punjab. Toss:
Punjab.
At Chennai: Karnataka 288/5 in 90 overs (R. Samarth 57, Devdutt Padikkal 151 batting) vs Tamil Nadu. Toss: Karnataka. Group-D: At Puducherry: Jammu & Kashmir 106 & 0/1 in 0.1 overs (Sidak Singh 5/39) vs Puducherry 172 in 55.1 overs
(Paras Dogra 58, Arun Karthik 50, Abid Mushtaq 5/64, Vanshaj Sharma 5/74). Toss: J&K. At Dharamshala: Delhi 264 in 71 overs (Ayush Badoni 51, Himmat Singh 60, Vinay Galetiya 5/66) vs Himachal Pradesh. Toss: HP. At Indore: Madhya Pradesh 223/3 in 57 overs (Himanshu Mantri 105 batting) vs Baroda. Toss: MP. At Cuttack: Uttarakhand 232/3 in 90 overs (Vaibhav Bhatt 101 batting, Jiwanjot Singh 90) vs Odisha. Toss: Uttarakhand. Plate (semifinals): At Hyderabad: Hyderabad 383/5 in 90 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 164, Rohit Rayudu 59, Tilak Varma 101) vs Nagaland. Toss: Hyderabad. At Mangaldoi: Mizoram 144 in 46.3 overs (Agni Chopra 53, Aryan Bora 6/58) vs Meghalaya 115/5 in 37 overs. Toss: Mizoram.
Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary couldn’t hide his disappointment after Sanju Samson won the toss for the first time this season. There was a cry of anguish from Tiwary as Kerala opted to bat in the Ranji Trophy match at the St. Xavier’s College ground here on Friday.
There was bounce and slow turn for the spinners on the first day, but another obdurate century by the reliable Sachin Baby (110 batting) and his unbroken 153run partnership for the fifth wicket with Akshay Chandran (76 batting) carried Kerala to a comfortable 265 for four at stumps on the first day.
Kerala was 112 for four when Akshay joined Baby soon after lunch. Shahbaz Ahmed had just found the outside edge of skipper Samon’s (8) bat with Tiwary completing a neat catch at first slip. Sanju never looked comfortable during his stay.
Akshay played fluently and didn’t waste his good start unlike some of his fellow batters. When he gets going, Akshay is one of the most stylist batters in the team. He played upright and drove with aplomb through the covers, swept and used his feet against the spinners.
Akshay got into his groove early with a couple of neatly driven boundaries off Akash Deep, who was the stand out bowler for Bengal.
At the other end, Baby played riskfree cricket to accumulate runs. The Bengal bowling became a bit erratic after tea and Baby cashed on to the loose offerings. He lofted Ankit Mishra over the longon boundary for a six and then tucked the ball behind square to complete his third hundred of the season.
Earlier, in the morning, Rohan Kunnummal (19) and Jalaj Saxena (40) gave Kerala one of its better starts of the season. Rohan, after smashing a few boundaries, slashed at a wide delivery from Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal and was snapped up by Tiwary at first slip.
Rohan Prem (3) failed again as Kerala slipped to 40 for two. Jalaj and Baby added 42 for the third wicket, but the former wasted a good start and feathered a catch to wicketkeeper Abhishek Porel off Mishra.
The scores:
Kerala — 1st innings: Rohan S. Kunnummal c Manoj b Jaiswal 19, Jalaj Saxena c Abhishek b Mishra 40, Rohan Prem c Abhishek b Akash Deep 3, Sachin Baby batting 110, Sanju Samson c Manoj b Shahbaz 8, Akshay Chandran batting 76; Extras (b-4, lb-3, w-1, nb-1): 9; Total (for four wkts. in 90 over): 265.
Fall of wickets: 1-26, 2-40, 3-82,
Bengal bowling: Jaiswal 15-3-40-1, Akash Deep 18-5-55-1, Mishra 23-3-53-1, Shahbaz 18-1-59-1, Karan 13-1-35-0, Kharia 3-0-16-0.