Scintillanting: Akshay prime scored with a superb knock of 184.
| Photo Credit: B. Madhu
Kerala’s batting flowered fairly late within the season however it is going to hardly make a distinction to the state of the competition because the customer’s passive strategy and simple contentment will probably consign the match to a tame draw on Monday.
Kerala, driving on centuries from Akshay Chandran (184) and Sachin Baby (113) declared its first innings at 514 for seven against Andhra – with a lead of 242 – and by shut on the penultimate day it had decreased the host to 19 for one on the Dr. P.V.G. Raju ACA Sports Complex stadium right here on Sunday.
But on a flat observe, it is going to require a poor batting efficiency from the host to lose the match on the ultimate day. The marked reluctance by the customer to quicken the scoring was stunning, and it overshadowed the centuries from Akshay and Baby.
It solely took half-an-hour within the morning for Kerala (in a single day 258 for 3) to go previous Andhra’s first innings rating of 272 however in a single day batters Baby and Akshay eschewed dangers and prolonged their fourth wicket stand to 184 runs. Baby was defeated by the bounce which Manish Golamaru extracted and was pressured to edge a catch to substitute Nithish Kumar Reddy within the first slip.
Akshay bought a life on 63 when Ashwin Hebbar on the third slip couldn’t latch on to catch when the batter slashed at a supply from Girinath Reddy. Akshay made Andhra pay dearly for the lapse as he together with Salman Nizar milked the bowling so as to add 126 runs for the fifth wicket.
Manish disturbed Salman’s (58) stumps when the batter missed the reduce. Mohammed Azharuddeen took on the spinners and performed the massive pictures to extend the tempo of scoring. He clattered boundaries off each Shoaib Mohammed Khan and Manish to rapidly attain 40 and perished whereas attempting for one more huge shot. Baby declared the innings when Akshay was bowled by Shoaib, attempting to go for a uncommon huge hit.
N.P. Basil trapped debutant Revanth Reddy in entrance to provide Kerala a very good begin. But Maheep Kumar and Ashwin Hebbar survived the hostile spell from Thampi and Basil.
Andhra — 1st innings: 272.
Kerala — 1st innings: Rohan Kunnummal c Rasheed b Shoaib 61, Jalaj Saxena c Aswin b Raju 4, Krishna Prasad c Girinath b Manish 43, Sachin Baby c (sub) Nitish b Manish 113, Akshay Chandran b Shoaib 184, Salman Nizar b Manish 58, Mohammed Azharuddeen c (sub) Nitish bt Manish 40, Akhil Scaria not out 2; Extras (b-5, lb-3, w-1): 9; Total (for seven wkts decl. in 161.4 overs): 514.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-94, 3-124, 4-305, 5-431, 6-506, 7-514.
Andhra bowling: Girinath 20-2-63-0, Raju 28-4-99-1, Ashwin 13-2-37-0 Manish 52-6-161-4, Shoaib 45.4-11-123-2, Karan 1-0-4-0. Rasheed 2-0-19-0.
Andhra-2nd innings: Okay. Revanth Reddy lbw N.P. Basil 5, Okay. Maheep Kumar (batting) 8, Ashwin Hebbar (batting) 2. Extras (b 4): 4; Total (for one wkts in seven overs): 19.
Fall of wicket: 1-5.
Kerala bowling: Thampi 3-0-9-0, N.P. Basil 3-1-6-1, Akshay 1-1-0-0.
