It will take some time for Ajay Mandal to neglect his dismissal, which allowed Kerala to take the first-innings lead towards Chhattisgarh within the Ranji Trophy match on the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium right here on Sunday.
Till he performed the cheeky reverse sweep towards Shreyas Gopal to be bowled for 63, the left-hander was in supreme management and had annoyed Kerala by including 123 runs for the seventh wicket with centurion Okay.D.Eknath (118 not out)
Kerala ultimately, managed to dismiss Chhattisgarh for 312 runs to take a 38-run first-innings lead. The customer by stumps had prolonged the result in 107 runs after ending the day at 69 for 2. With a day remaining and the wicket taking part in true, a draw is the logical conclusion.
In the morning, Akhin Sathar gave Kerala an early breakthrough as he had in a single day batter Sanjeet Desai (56) caught down the legside by wicketkeeper Mohammed Azharuddeen. Chhattisgarh slumped to 145 for six when Shashank Singh (18) was caught, slog sweeping, by Akhin on the midwicket fence off Jalaj Saxena.
However, a cussed Eknath dashed Kerala’s hopes of wrapping the innings shortly. The former Mumbai batter bided his time and introduced his facet again into the competition. Eknath discovered a keen accomplice in Ajay Mandal, who after a nervy begin, settled all the way down to play the function of the aggressor.
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Kerala bowlers erred by bowling too brief to the batters on the sluggish wicket. The balls from medium pacers sat as much as be hit, and each Ajay and Eknath put away the unhealthy balls with none fuss.
The seventh wicket stand prospered and have become threatening for the customer when Ajay was dismissed towards the run of play. But Eknath refused to be cowed down at the same time as he misplaced companions on the different finish. The wicketkeeper batter took on the bowling and indulged in a boundary-hitting spree. He spanked M.D. Nidheesh for 4 boundaries in an over and within the course of, accomplished his deserved century.
The scores
Kerala-1st innings: 350Chattisgarh-1st innings
Shashank Chandrakar c Azharuddeen b Thampi 8, Rishab Tiwari b Jalaj 7, Ashutosh Singh lbw Nidheesh 31, Sanjeet Desai c Azharuddeen b Akhin 56, Amandeep Khare lbw Nidheesh 0, Okay.D. Eknath not out 118, Shashank Singh c Akhin b Jalaj 18, Ajay Mandal b Shreyas 63, Ravi Kiran lbw Jalaj 0, Sourabh Majumdar c Azharuddeen b Thampi 0, Ashish Chouhan b Nidheesh 0
Extras (b-1, 1b-9, w-1): 11
Total (in 103 overs): 312
Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-16, 3-91, 4-91, 5-113, 6-145, 7-268, 8-269, 9-297
Kerala bowling
Thampi 24-4-87-2, Nidheesh 27-8-83-3, Jalaj 22-6-31-3 Akhin 15-1-63-1, Shreyas 13-3-26-1, Vishnu 2-0-12-0.
Kerala-2nd innings
Rohan Kunnummal c Rishab b Ashish 36, Rohan Prem c Tiwary b Ravi 17, Sachin Baby batting 6, Vishnu Vinod batting 4
Extras (b-2, lb-4): 6
Total (for 2 wkts in 18 overs): 69
Fall of wickets: 1-51, 2-62
Chhattisgarh bowling
Ravi Kiran 4-1-18-1, Ashish 7-1-17-1, Ajay 6-0-26-0, Ashutosh 1-0-2-0.
Source web site: sportstar.thehindu.com
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