For much of the last two days, the wicket at the Keenan Stadium was a lot flatter than the road from the Ranchi airport to this city of steel. Virat Singh and Aditya Singh showed steely resolve to make use of that batting paradise.

They both scored hundreds, put on a mammoth partnership for the sixth wicket for Jharkhand, and almost batted Kerala out of the Ranji Trophy match. The host’s first innings ended only off the second-last ball of the second day, for 587.

It was indeed a long day in the field for Kerala. That one of its bowlers, seamer Edhen Apple Tom, could not even take the field after getting injured, didn’t help either. It meant more workload for the other bowlers, who were tormented by the sheer grit and patience of Virat (108, 264b, 9×4) and Aditya (147, 278b, 17×4). The duo resumed at the overnight score of 289 for five and remained unseparated at lunch. As they were at tea.

Aditya was the first to reach three figures. And it was his maiden hundred in senior cricket.

“I had scored hundreds in age-group cricket, but scoring a First Class hundred is indeed a different thing,” the spinning all-rounder said. “And I am glad that I could build that big partnership with the captain.”

The partnership was worth 227. “After losing four wickets quickly on the first day, our aim was to bat at least till the drinks break, and then we wanted to stay there till lunch,” the skipper said.

The partnership ended when Vaisakh Chandran induced an edge with a ball that turned and had Virat caught at slip. The off-spinner went on to pick up his second five-wicket haul in Ranji Trophy.

The final session saw the dead track responding a bit to spin.

That isn’t good news for Kerala, of course.

The scores: Jharkhand — 1st Innings: Shikhar Mohan b Vaisakh 143, Sharandeep Singh b Jalaj 33, Utkarsh Singh c Baby b Jalaj 71, Virat Singh c Baby b Vaisakh 108, Robin Minz b Vaisakh 10, Kounain Quraishi c Baby b Vaisakh 10, Aditya Singh b Sarwate 147, Sahil Raj b Sarwate 19, Manishi Singh c Azharuddeen b Jalaj 20, Sushant Mishra lbw b Vaisakh 18, Saurabh Shekhar (not out) 0; Extras (b-4, lb-3, w-1): 8; Total (in 179.5 overs): 587.

Fall of wickets: 1-87, 2-250, 3-252, 4-269, 5-279, 6-506, 7-534, 8-549, 9-570.

Kerala bowling: Nidheesh 26-3-93-0, Edhen 10-1-45-0, Jalaj 51.5-12-126-3, Sarwate 36-6-116-2, Vaisakh 49-6-166-5, Abhishek 1-0-11-0, Vishnu 4-1-10-0, Baby 2-0-13-0.