Kerala on Wednesday slid to another Ranji Trophy defeat well inside three days.
The latest humiliating loss came against Andhra; it was the fifth from seven matches. With just nine points, Kerala is placed third from the bottom.
Since two teams, out of the 18 combined from Groups A and B, will be relegated to Group C, Jalaj Saxena’s men ought to be an anxious bunch. If they keep the current form, in the last match against Vidarbha, they could be engrossed in a fascinating battle with Hyderabad and Madhya Pradesh for the bottom two places during the final round of the preliminary league next week.
Hyderabad, though, is in no mood to give up its last place in the table at the moment: it registered its sixth loss in seven matches, against Rajasthan at home. It remains on six points — no prize for guessing how it got all those points (because of its win over Kerala, of course).
Meanwhile, Andhra, continues to be perched on top of the table. The latest victory has taken its tally to 27 points from six games.
With two more matches in hand, Ricky Bhui’s men may have done just about enough to ensure a place in the quarterfinals (top five go through). They must have expected to take their six points some time on Wednesday afternoon, given the brittle batting of Kerala. Only an extraordinary innings or two from visiting batsmen could have taken the match to the final day.
That didn’t happen. Kerala’s second innings, which commenced at the start of the day, folded up in just 45 overs, for 135. Robin Uthappa and Rahul Prem got into 20’s — something of an achievement when you recall that no top-order batsman had done it in the first innings — but none was willing to spend some time at the wicket.
Once again, Andhra’s seamers shared the spoils. Debutant S.M.D. Rafi and left-armer Y. Prithviraj claimed three wickets each, while K.V. Sasikanth took two.
The host needed 43 to win and it reached home with seven wickets to spare.
The scores:
Kerala — 1st Innings: 162.
Andhra — 1st Innings: 255.
Kerala — 2nd Innings: P. Rahul b Nithish 6, Robin Uthappa c Sumanth b Rafi 22, Rohan Prem c Shinde b Sasikanth 24, Sachin Baby c Jyothi c Rafi 6, Salman Nizar c sub b Prithviraj 19, Jalaj Saxena c Sasikanth b Rafi 1, Vishnu Vinod b Prithviraj 14, Basil Thampi b Prithviraj 8, M.D. Nidheesh b Sasikanth 20, N.P. Basil (not out) 1, Abhishek Mohan (absent hurt) 0; Extras (b-9, lb-5): 14; Total (in 45 overs): 135.
Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-46, 3-64, 4-72, 5-76, 6-99, 7-110, 8-113, 9-135.
Andhra bowling: Nithish 5-1-19-1, Rafi 13-4-29-3, Sasikanth 18-4-47-2, Prithviraj 9-1-26-3.
Andhra — 2nd Innings: C.R. Gnanenshwar c Vishnu b Jalaj 9, D.B. Prashanth Kumar c Basil b Jalaj 4, Jyothi Saikrishna b Nidheesh 15, S.M.D. Rafi (not out) 12, Ricky Bhui (not out) 2; Extras (lb-1): 1; Total (for three wkts. in 15.1 overs): 43.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-18, 3-40.
Kerala bowling: Nidheesh 8-0-25-1, Jalaj 7.1-2-17-2.
