Say cheese! Kerala staff is a cheerful bunch after defeating Bengal.
| Photo Credit: Special association
A late shot of adrenaline by Basil Thampi gave Kerala its first win of the season in the Ranji Trophy cricket event at the St. Xavier’s College floor right here on Monday. Banished to patrol the ropes for a significant half of the day, Thampi was summoned by captain Sanju Samson to bowl solely after tea.
Chasing a mammoth goal of 449, the Bengal lower-order, led by Shahbaz Ahmed annoyed Kerala in the put up lunch session.
The seventh-wicket stand between Shahbaz Ahmed (80) and Karan Lal (40) added 83 fast runs and handled the Kerala spinners with disdain which pressured Samson to show to his medium-pacer.
Thampi responded in model by breaching the defence of Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal (13) and in the subsequent over ran out Akash Deep (1) with an excellent choose up and throw from mid-on.
A pumped up Thampi then wrapped up the Bengal innings when he had Shahbaz Ahmed skying a catch to Rohan Kunnummal at deep square-leg. With 16 deliveries Thampi ended Bengal’s spirited chase from Bengal to present Kerala a 109-run win.
Until Shahbaz and Karan joined forces, Kerala held the higher hand with spinners hanging at common intervals, decreasing Bengal to 234 for six.
Jalaj Saxena, regardless of bowling with a swollen finger, was relentless and picked up wickets each time the batters went after him. He completed with match figures of 13 for 172.
Manoj Tiwary, who obtained a reprieve on seven after being given leg-before off a Jalaj no-ball, used the reverse and conventional sweeps to pile strain on the off-spinner. However, the further aggression from Bengal batters solely resulted of their dismissals.
Easwaran (65) tried to hit Jalaj over mid-wicket however ended up holing out to N.P. Basil and Tiwary’s (35) urge to dominate Jalaj resulted in a catch to Sanju. The pattern continued with Abhishek Porel (28), after slamming Shreyas Gopal for consecutive sixes, gave a tame return catch.
Sanju was pressured to show to Basil when the seventh wicket stand between Shahbaz and Karan turned threatening.
He gave Kerala a fortuitous breakthrough when Karan (40) swished and nicked however the ball popped out from wicket-keeper Azharuddeen’s gloves.
However, substitute fielder Krishna Prasad was alert sufficient to collect the rebound. After tea, Thampi ran in arduous to finish Bengal’s resistance.
The scores:
Kerala — 1st innings: 363.
Bengal — 1st innings: 180.
Kerala — 2nd innings: 265/6 decl.
Bengal — 2nd innings: Abhimanyu Easwaran c Basil b Jalaj 65, Ranjot Singh Kharia c Thampi b Jalaj 2, Sudip Kumar Gharami c Akshay b Shreyas 31, Anstup Majumdar c (sub) Krishna Prasad b Jalaj 16, Manoj Tiwary c Sanju b Jalaj 35, Abhishek Porel c & b Shreyas 28, Shahbaz Ahmed c Rohan b Thampi 80, Karan Lal c (sub) Krishna Prasad b Thampi 40, Sauraj Sindhu Jaiswal b Thampi 13, Akash Deep run out 1, Ankit Mishra (not out) 0; Extras (b-15, lb-10, nb-3): 28; Total (in 87.4 overs): 339.
Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-77, 3-113, 4-151, 5-180, 6-234, 7-317, 8-335, 9-337.
Kerala bowling: Jalaj 36-3-104-4, Akshay 14-2-48-0, Shreyas 23-2-96-2, Baby 5-0-26-0, Sanju 1-0-11-0, Basil 6-2-21-1, Thampi 2.4-0-8-2.
