Medium-pacers Sandeep Warrier and Vinod Kumar made it lively for Kerala, but a string of dropped catches and a defiant half-century by Rohit Sharma helped Haryana close the opening day at 227 for eight in the Ranji Trophy Group-C league match at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Saturday.
On a grassy pitch that offered a lot of lift, the 25-year-old Sandeep Warrier bagged four wickets. After having taken nine wickets in the first four matches of the season, it was a welcome return to a strong performance for Sandeep.
However, it was Vinod who made Kerala believe in its bowling as he rattled the top order with a three-wicket haul, barely giving two runs per over in 20 overs. After struggling to 68 for three at lunch and 143 for six at tea, Haryana was able to open a bit, thanks to a patient unbeaten 51 by Rohit who struck seven boundaries in his 135-ball knock.
In trying to speed up the bowling rate, Kerala had to rely on the slow bowlers and Jalaj Saxena struck by dismissing Yuzvendra Chahal.
The flow of runs may have been slow, but Haryana kept looking for them as the players were compulsive strokeplayers, which led to a lot of catches. Kerala was guilty of dropping at least half a dozen catches through the day and that may weigh eventually.
It was a good reading of the situation when Kerala opted to bowl. The medium-pacers made the batsmen play most of the time, which made it an interesting contest on a lively pitch on a bright day.
It will be interesting to see how Haryana responds on the morrow, especially in the absence of Joginder Sharma, ruled out owing to a shoulder injury.
The scores:
Haryana — 1st innings: Nitin Saini b Vinod Kumar 21, Shubham Rohilla lbw b Sandeep Warrier 4, Chaitanya Bishnoi c Jalaj Saxena b Vinod Kumar 21, Rajat Paliwal c Iqbal Abdullah b Vinod Kumar 18, Mohit Hooda c Nikhilesh Surendran b Sandeep Warrier 30, Rohit Sharma (batting) 51, Harshal Patel c Nikhilesh Surendran b Sandeep Warrier 0, Yuzvendra Chahal c Iqbal Abdullah b Jalaj Saxena 16, Mohit Sharma c Bhavin Thakkar b Sandeep Warrier 24, Sanjay Pahal (batting) 24; Extras (b-10, lb-5, nb-3) 18; Total (for eight wkts. in 85 overs): 227.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-53, 3-53, 4-104, 5-104, 6-104, 7-154, 8-188.
Kerala bowling: Sandeep Warrier 25-11-60-4, Manu Krishnan 18-6-53-0, Vinod Kumar 20-6-37-3, Iqbal Abdullah 14-3-33-0, Jalaj Saxena 8-0-29-1.
Toss: Kerala.
