On fireplace: Kuldeep tormented the Kerala batters and claimed the prized scalp of Vishnu Vinod.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Vishnu Vinod made a comeback to First Class cricket along with his trademark flamboyant knock (74) that helped Kerala keep in the contest towards Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy cricket match at the SD College floor right here on Saturday.
The host, after proscribing Uttar Pradesh to 302 in the first innings, ended the day at 220 for six with Shreyas Gopal (36 batting) and Jalaj Saxena (6 batting) surviving a tough closing session.
But Kerala owes it to Vishnu Vinod, who was enjoying his first Ranji match after two years, for stopping Uttar Pradesh from dominating the contest. The begin was ominous for the host with debutant Krishna Prasad falling for a golden duck. Vishnu walked in when Kerala was tottering at 32 for 3. Kuldeep Yadav was tormenting Kerala batters and had simply breached Rohan Prem’s defence with a supply which whizzed previous the defensive prod to citadel him.
Vishnu Vinod.
Vishnu tempered his aggression initially however quickly went into assault mode towards the spinners. He hit Saurabh Kumar out of the assault and didn’t spare Kuldeep both. Vishnu hit Saurabh for 3 sixes and 4 in an over to race to his fifty. Sachin Baby (38) proved to be a great foil as he added 99 runs with Vishnu for the fourth wicket to resurrect the innings. Vishnu, who was affected by cramps, tried a cheeky reverse sweep towards Kuldeep and perished.
Sanju Samson made a late entry and started in fashion, clobbering the first ball he confronted from Kuldeep for a straight six. He batted fluently to achieve 35 however fell to a superb leg facet catch at the fag finish of the final session to provide Uttar Pradesh an enormous increase.
Earlier in the day, Kerala medium pacers M.D. Nidheesh and Basil Thampi picked up wickets repeatedly to limit the guests. A double strike by Nidheesh hastened the Uttar Pradesh innings.
Rinku Singh’s desperation to achieve the hundred noticed him edge a large supply to slips and Yash Dayal fell for a golden duck to a different catch in the slips. Kuldeep (5) then hit a full toss from Jalaj to midwicket as the guests have been bowled out for 302.
The scores:
Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: Samarth Singh lbw Nidheesh 10, Aryan Jayal c Vishnu b Vaisakh 28, Priyam Garg b Thampi 44, Aksh Deep Nath c Baby b Jalaj 9, Sameer Rizvi c Sanju b Shreyas 26, Rinku Singh c Vishnu b Nidheesh 92, Dhruv Jurel c Prasad b Thampi 63, Saurabh Kumar run out 20, Kuldeep Yadav c Thampi b Jalaj 5, Yash Dayal c Rohan b Nidheesh 0, Ankit Rajpoot not out 2; Extras (b-1 lb-1, w-1): 3; Total (in 83.4 overs): 302.
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-75, 3-85, 4-114, 5-124, 6-267, 7-294, 8-295, 9-295.
Kerala bowling: Thampi 19-0-83-2, Nidheesh 17-1-68-3, Vaisakh 15-2-15-1 Jalaj 23.4-1-65-2, Shreyas 9-1-33-1.
Kerala — 1st innings: Krishna Prasad c Aksh Deep b Ankit 0, Rohan S. Kunnummal lbw Saurabh 11, Rohan Prem bt Kuldeep 14, Sachin Baby c Saurabh b Kuldeep 38, Vishnu Vinod c Aksh Deep b Kuldeep 75, Shreyas Gopal (batting) 36, Sanju Samson c Jurel b Yash Dayal 35, Jalaj Saxena (batting) 6; Extras (b-3, 1b-1, nb-2): 6; Total (for 5 wkts in 65 overs): 220.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-19, 3-32, 4-131, 5-144, 6-201
Uttar Pradesh bowling: Ankit 14-4-56-1, Yash Dayal 15-4-25-1, Saurabh 18-4-69-1, Kuldeep 18-1-66-3.
