Captain Sachin Baby’s half-century powered Kerala’s victory push against Punjab in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala overcame the vagaries of the wicket with intent and aggression to cruise to an eight-wicket win over Punjab in the Ranji Trophy cricket match at the KCA-St.Xavier’s College ground here on Monday.
Chasing 158 for a win, the makeshift opening pair of Sachin Baby and Rohan Kunnummal were ultra aggressive in their approach and threw the pitch out of the equation in the quest for victory. Perhaps the Kerala openers took a cue from aggressive methods which Prabhsimran Singh (51 off 49 balls) adopted during Punjab innings on the two-paced wicket that made batting a hazardous exercise for most of the batters.
Rohan and Baby attacked the bowling from the start and added 73 runs for the wicket in 13 overs which set up the road to victory.
The second wicket stand of 75 between captain Sachin Baby (56), who was the passive partner in the first wicket stand, and Baba Aparajith (39 not out) sealed the contest.
Rohan took up the task to defang the Punjab spinners early. He sashayed down the track and smote Naman Dhir over long-on for a six to begin the chase on a positive note. He then square cut Emanjot Singh fiercely for a boundary and deposited Mayank Markande’s first ball over long-on for a six. Rohan raced to 48 off 36 balls but missed out on a big score as Mayank took a sharp return catch.
However, Baby and Aparajith overcame their nervous starts to play with confidence. Baby was dismissed soon after completing his fifty but Salman Nizar pulled Brar for a couple to complete the win.
Earlier in the morning, Aparajith bowled with precision and control to trouble the batters. Krish Bhagat (5) and Nehal Wadhera (12) fell cheaply as Punjab slumped to 50 for five. But captain Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh took the aggressive route to take the fight to the Kerala camp and added 71 runs for the sixth wicket.
Prabhsimran hit a flurry of boundaries off Aparajith and Akshay Chandran to quickly wrest the momentum. Azharudden flunked a stumping chance off Akshay but Prabhsimaran didn’t temper his aggression and raced to his fifty. Jalaj took the key scalp of Prabhsimran who feathered a catch to Vathsal Govind at silly point.
Prabhsmiran’s dismissal opened the floodgates as Punjab lost its last five wickets for just 21 runs. Kerala’s spin trio of Aparajith (4/35), Aditya Sarwate (4/43) and Jalaj Saxena (2/40) shared the spoils as Punjab was bowled out in the extended first session.
Scores – Punjab- 1st innings: 194.
Kerala-1st innings: 179.
Punjab-2nd innings:Abhay Choudhary c Vinod b Aparajith 12, Naman Dhir c Salman b Sarwate 7, Siddharth Kaul c Vinod b Sarwate 0, Krish Bhagat c Azharuddeen b Aparajith 5, Anmolpreet Singh c Salman b Jalaj 37, Nehal Wadhera b Aparajith 12, Prabhsimran Singh c Vathsal b Jalaj 51, Mayank Markande b Sarwate 9, Ramandeep Singh c Salman b Sarwate 0, Gurnoor Brar c Rohan b Aparajith 1, Emanjot Singh Chahal not out 0. Extras (b-7, lb-1): 8. Total (all out in 55.1 overs): 142.
Fall-of-wickets: 1-19, 2-19, 3-19, 4-32, 5-50, 6-121, 7-140, 8-140, 9-142.
Kerala bowling: Sarwate 19-6-43-4, Jalaj 18.1-2-40-2, Aparajith 15-5-35-4, Akshay 3-0-16-0.
Kerala-2nd innings: Sachin Baby c Anmolpreet b Emanjot 56, Rohan Kunnummal c & b Mayank 48, Baba Aparajith not out 39, Salman Nizar not out 7. Extras (b-7, 1b-1): 8. Total (for two wkts. in 36 overs): 158.
Fall of wickets: 1-73, 2-148
Punjab bowling: Emanjot Singh 14-2-53-1, Kaul 2-0-13-0, Dhir 5-1-22-0, Mayank 8-0-29-1, Brar 5-0-22-0, Wadhera 2-0-11-0.
Published – October 14, 2024 08:52 pm IST
