Sparkling day: Gani put the Kerala assault to the sword whereas scoring an unbeaten century.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Just earlier than shut on the second day, century-maker Sakibul Gani mistimed a shot off Akshay Chandran and the ball ballooned in the direction of additional cowl. M.D. Nidheesh, working backwards from mid-on, tried his finest however dropped the catch. The miss summed up the day for Kerala at the same time as Bihar loved its finest day with the bat in this season’s Ranji Trophy.
Gani’s unbeaten 120, and his century stands with opener Piyush Singh (51) and Bipin Saurabh (60), noticed the host end the second day at 270 for 5 – a lead of 43 after bowling out the customer for 227 in the morning.
Gani, till the blemish at the fag finish of the day, by no means gave the Kerala bowlers a whiff of an opportunity. Sparkling drives and rousing pulls marked his innings as the Kerala bowlers failed to seek out the desired accuracy. Gani obtained into his stride early, clipping Akhin Sathar behind sq. for his first boundary. However, he most popular to play second fiddle to Piyush in the 109-run third-wicket stand. Shreyas gave Kerala a short raise when he picked up two wickets earlier than tea.
However, Bipin’s aggressive knock after the second break of the day took the wind out of Kerala’s sails. He used his toes nicely against the Kerala spinners, drilling boundaries on either side of the wicket.
At the different finish, Gani went right into a shell as he neared the three-figure mark however reached the milestone in fashion by lofting Shreyas over square-leg for a six. Bipin, nevertheless, threw it away with a wild slog however not earlier than including 110 for the fifth wicket with Gani.
Earlier, Akhin had a dream begin to his profession, taking a wicket along with his third ball after opener Sharman Nigrodh edged to Vishnu Raj at slip. Akhin bowled with plenty of coronary heart throughout his first spell in which he additionally castled Babul Kumar with an inswinger. However, Akhin was responsible of being wayward in his subsequent spells.
In the morning, Akhin had defended stoutly and enabled Shreyas add 24 runs to the complete. The last-wicket stand produced 51 to take Kerala previous the 200-mark earlier than Gani dominated the day.
The scores:
Kerala – 1st innings: Anand Krishnan c Gani b Veer 9, Rohan Kunnammal b Vipul 5, Sachin Baby b Veer 1, Vishnu Vinod c Nigrodh b Veer 0, Akshay Chandran c Piyush b Himanshu 37, Shreyas Gopal c Veer b Ashutosh 137, Vishnu Raj b Himanshu 1, Jalaj Saxena c Raghuvendra b Vipul 22, Basil Thampi lbw b Himanshu 0, M.D. Nidheesh lbw b Himanshu 0, Akhin Sathar (not out) 0; Extras (b-4, 1b-8, w-3): 15; Total (in 74.3 overs): 227.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-15, 3-15, 4-34, 5-84, 6-102, 7-163, 8-164, 9-176.
Bihar bowling: Veer 10-5-26-3, Vipul 19-3-57-2, Ashutosh 18.3-1-47-1, Raghuvendra 4-0-21-0, Himanshu 22-4-63-4, Gani 1-0-1-0.
Bihar – 1st innings: Piyush Singh b Shreyas 51, Sharman Nigrodh c Vishnu Raj b Akhin 0, Babul Kumar b Akhin 16, Sakibul Gani (batting) 120, Rishav Raj b Shreyas 2, Bipin Saurabh c Akhin b Jalaj 60, Vipul Krishna (batting) 0; Extras (b-10, lb-10, w-1): 21; Total (for 5 wkts. in 73 overs): 270.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-29, 3-138, 4-158, 5-268.
Kerala bowling: Thampi 12-4-45-0, Akhin 12-3-40-2, Nidheesh 11-0-41-0, Jalaj 15-4-47-1, Shreyas 19-3-66-2, Akshay 4-0-11-0.
