If he doesn’t get you with the ball, he will with the bat. Jalaj Saxena is in that kind of form.
With Kerala’s seamers hitting the deck and form on a seamer-friendly track on day one, the team didn’t require his off-spin much, though he still took a wicket. So on Wednesday at the Eden Gardens he showed what he could do with the bat.
Opening the innings, he made a brilliant 143 (190b, 21x4, 2x6) to take the visiting side to a commanding position on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group B match. Fresh from his hundred and nine-wicket haul against Andhra at Thiruvananthapuram a few days ago, he gave Kerala a more-than-sizeable lead of 144 runs.
Setback
Bengal, needing to come up with a much bigger score in the second innings, suffered a setback right before the close and finished the day at five for one. Against Kerala’s formidable trio of pacers, the host’s batsmen could have a tough task on Thursday.
One of them should play the kind of innings that Jalaj has done if their team wants to stay in the match. On a helpful track and against a four-pronged pace attack featuring two internationals, batting wasn’t going to be easy, but the Kerala all-rounder came up with what should be one of the finest knocks of this Ranji Trophy season so far.
He made his intentions clear, upper-cutting the second ball of the day — bowled by Mohammed Shami — over point for six. He scored another six, with a similar shot, in the Indian seamer’s next over as well.
Jalaj went on to play pretty strokes square of the wicket on either side. It was a supreme exhibition of strokeplay and watchfulness as he led Kerala’s chase of Bengal’s modest total.
Excellent support
He received excellent support from V.A. Jagadeesh (39), with whom he added 119 for the seventh wicket. He also figured in useful partnerships with Rohan Prem for the second wicket (52) and captain Sachin Baby for the third (55) before he finally fell, caught behind off Ishan Porel, the seamer who came back strongly after an indifferent start to pick up four for 69.
Shami took three wickets, but was expensive in his 26 overs. He wasn’t supposed to bowl that many though, as the BCCI had initially allowed him to bowl only 15 overs per innings so that he is not overworked ahead of the Australian tour.
Bengal coach Sairaj Bahutule said Shami was fit and wanted to bowl more. “He had been allowed to bowl a few overs more than 15 if required, so it is not an issue at all,” he said.
The scores: Bengal — 1st innings: 147.
Kerala — 1st innings: Arun Karthik lbw b Shami 1, Jalaj Saxena c Vivek b Porel 143, Rohan Prem c Vivek b Dinda 18, Sanju Samson lbw b Shami 0, Sachin Baby c Majumdar b Shami 23, Salman Nizar c Tiwary b Mukesh 5, V.A. Jagadeesh lbw b Porel 39, Akshay Chandran (not out) 32, Basil Thampi b Porel 4, M.D. Nidheesh c Tiwary b Porel 4, Sandeep Warrier b Dinda 2; Extras (b-6, lb-9, nb-1, w-4): 20; Total (in 83 overs): 291.
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-53, 3-54, 4-109, 5-114, 6-233, 7-252, 8-258, 9-268.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 19-3-41-2, Mohammed Shami 26-3-100-3, Mukesh Kumar 14-2-45-1, Ishan Porel 18-3-69-4, Writtick Chatterjee 2-0-10-0, Anustup Majumdar 4-0-11-0.
Bengal — 2nd innings: Abhishek Raman (batting) 0, Koushik Ghosh c Samson b Warrier 1; Extras (lb-4): 4; Total (for one wkt. in 2.2 overs): 5.
Fall of wicket: 1-5.
Kerala bowling: Sandeep Warrier 1.2-1-0-1, Basil Thampi 1-0-1-0.
