As expected, Kerala romped home to its maiden victory of the season in the Ranji Trophy on Sunday. The host beat Services by nine wickets an hour into the final day of the Group ‘C’ encounter at the Thalassery Cricket Stadium.
The visitor resumed the final day at 122 for four, following on, and had still needed 43 to make Kerala bat again. It did succeed in forcing the Kerala batsmen to pad up, and even took a wicket with the first ball, denying the host the bonus point.
Left-arm spinner Akshay Chandran proved the most successful bowler, finishing with six for 39. It turned out to be an unforgettable debut for the local lad.
“He is the biggest positive for us from this match,” said Kerala coach Sairaj Bahutule. “We are also happy that Sanju Samson finally found his true form.”
The dashing batsman had scored 207 in the Kerala first innings and was named Man of the Match.
With the win, Kerala has taken its tally to 19 points from seven games, but it has no chance to qualify for the knock-out stage. Assam is on top of the table with 35 points, followed by Himachal Pradesh (27) and Andhra (22). Services has eight points.
Kerala — 1st innings: 483.
Services — 1st innings: 318.
Services — 2nd innings: Soumik Chatterjee b Chandran 7, Sumit Singh c Anthaf b Chandran 9, Anshul Gupta c Sachin b Chandran 7, Rajit Paliwal lbw b Chandran 22, Hardik Sethi hit wkt Chandran 2, Yashpal Singh b Vinoop 0, Nakul Verma (not out) 40, Saurabh Kumar c & b Anthaf 41, Deepak Punia c Sachin b Anthaf 0, Suraj Yadav lbw b Chandran 36, Roshan Raj b Rohan 0; Extras (b-7, lb-1, nb-2): 10; Total (in 45.4 overs): 174.
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-16, 3-39, 4-49, 5-51, 6-53, 7-123, 8-123, 9-169.
Kerala bowling: Amit Verma 8-1-43-0, Raiphi Vincent Gomez 2-0-8-0, Vinoop Manoharan 10-0-40-1, Akshay Chandran 16-4-39-6, Rohan Prem 3.4-0-24-1, P.U. Anthaf 6-2-12-2.
Kerala — 2nd innings: Abhishek Hegde c Paliwal b Saurabh 0, Sanju Samson (not out) 4, Nikhilesh Surendran (not out) 6; Total (for one wkt. in 1.3 overs): 10.
Fall of wicket: 1-0.
Services bowling: Saurabh Kumar 1-0-5-1, Hardik Sethi 0.3-0-5-0.
