Crisis man Sachin Baby has made a comeback this season to lift Kerala from 19-4 to 254-6 at the end of the first day’s game against Services in a Ranji Trophy cricket match at KCA-St.Xavier’s College. played a familiar role. Grounds here on Tuesday.
Sachin Baby’s second century of the season (133 shots) and his three half-century standings – 96 for fifth wicket with Salman Nizah (42), 65, 74 for sixth wicket with Akshay Chandran (32) A seventh wicket (29 strokes) with Lang’s unbeaten partnership captain Sijomon Joseph – kept the innings for Kerala.
The Services Medium Pacer Diwesh Pathania (2/31) and P.S. Poonia (2/35) took advantage of conditions that helped rock Kerala’s innings early. The provisional opening pair of P.Rahul and Jalaj Saxena lasted just three overs, with Pathania leading his Jalaj (8). Similarly, Poonia sent back both P.Rahul (0) and Rohan Prem (1), reducing the hosts to his 3-10. Vathsal Govind (1) failed to make a comeback and Kerala came back with 19 for 4.
But Sachin Baby was happy to play the waiting game. After the wickets subsided and conditions were a little easier to hit, Sachin punished a loose ball and Salman Nizar played a big shot early on to change the shot and bring the attack to the opposition.
His fifth pair of wickets steadily saw him add 96 runs, but Arpit Guleria broke through when he let Salman nibble an outswinger and wicketkeeper L.S. Kumar
Kerala dominated the game in the after-lunch session, with the sixth wicket in his pair he negotiated a serve attack without Akshay Chandran and Sachin Baby fussing. Akshay played fluently until the age of 32. His lack of concentration caused Akshay to lose a wicket to part-time spinner Rajat Paliwal just before tea. His captain Sijomon Joseph paid the wicket and played alongside Sachin Baby in the final session.
The scores
Kerala- Ist innings
P.Rahul lbw Poonia 0, Jalaj Saxena lbw Pathania 8, Rohan Prem lbw Poonia 1; Vathsal Govind c Kumar b Pathania 1, Sachin Baby batting 133, Salman Nizar c Kumar b Arpit 42, Akshay Chandran c Rohilla b Paliwal 32, Sijomon Joseph batting 29
Extras (b 3, lb 3, nb 2): 8
Total (for six wkts. in 90 overs): 254
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-9, 3-10, 4-19, 5-115, 6-180
Services bowling
Pathania 13-4-31-2, Poonia 16-5-35-2, Arpit 14-1-48-1, Narang 25-3-70-0, Rathee 17-0-57-0, Paliwal 5-1-7-1.