Simply earlier than shut on the second day, centurion Sakibul Gani mistimed a shot off Akshay Chandran and the ball ballooned up in direction of further cowl, M.D.Nidheesh, operating backwards from mid on, made a half-hearted try because the ball dropped in entrance of him. The miss summed up an unabsorbed day for Kerala by which it lacked intent and allowed the house aspect to take pleasure in its finest day of the season with the bat.
Gani’s century (120 batting) and his two century stands with opener Piyush Kumar Singh (51) and Bipin Saurabh (60) noticed Bihar end the second day of the Ranji Trophy match in opposition to Kerala at 270 for 5. The host took a useful lead of 43 after bowling out the customer for 227 within the morning.
Gani, till the blemish on the fag finish of the day, by no means gave the Kerala bowlers a whiff of an opportunity. Spanking drives and rousing pulls punctuated his innings as Kerala bowlers operated with out the specified accuracy. Gani obtained into his stride early by clipping Akhin Sathar behind sq. for his first boundary. Nonetheless, he performed second fiddle to Piyush within the 109-run third wicket stand. Shreyas gave Kerala a short carry when he picked up two wickets earlier than tea.
Nonetheless, Bipin Saurabh’s aggressive knock after tea took the wind out of Kerala’s sails. Bipin was extreme on the Kerala spinners and used his ft to drill boundaries on each side of the wicket. Gani went right into a shell as he neared century however accomplished it in model by lifting Shreyas over sq. leg for a six. Bipin threw it away with wild slog however not earlier than including 110-runs for the fifth wicket with Gani.
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Earlier, Akhin had a dream begin to his profession, taking a wicket together with his third ball after opener Sraman Nigrodh edged him to Vishnu Vinod within the slips. Akhin bowled with a variety of coronary heart in his first spell throughout which he additionally bowled Babul Kumar with an inswinger. Nonetheless, he was additionally responsible of being wayward in direction of the latter a part of his bowling spells. Within the morning, Akhin defended stoutly to allow Shreyas add one other 24 runs to the overall. The final wicket stand produced 51 runs however what Kerala wanted was extra contributions from the highest order.
The scores
Kerala-1st innings
Anand Krishnan c Gani b Veer 9, Rohan Kunnammal b Vipul 5, Sachin Child b Veer 1, Vishnu Vinod c Sraman b Veer 0, Akshay Chandran c Piyush b Himanshu 37, Shreyas Gopal c Veer b Ashutosh 137 Vishnu Raj b Himanshu 1, Jalaj Saxena c Pratap b Vipul 22, Basil Thampi lbw Himanshu 0, M.D.Nidheesh lbw Himanshu 0,Akhin Sathar not out 0
Extras: (b-4, 1b-8, w-3): 15
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-15, 3-15, 4-34, 5-84, 6-102, 7-163, 8-164, 9-176
Whole ( in 74.3 overs): 227
Bihar bowling
Veer 10-5-26-3, Vipul 19-3-57-2, Ashutosh 18.3-1-47-1, Pratap 4-0-21-0, Himanshu 22-4-63-4, Gani 1-0-1-0.
Bihar -1st innings
Piyush Kumar Singh b Shreyas 51, Sraman Nigrodh c Vishnu b Akhin 0, Babul Kumar b Akhin 16, Sakibul Gani batting 120, Rishav b Shreyas 2, Bipin Saurabh c Akhin b Jalaj 60, Vipul Krishna batting 0
Extras (b-10, lb-10, w-1): 21
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-29, 3-138, 4-158, 5-268
Kerala bowling
Thampi 12-4-45-0, Akhin 12-3-40-2, M.D. Nidheesh 11-0-41-0, Jalaj 15-4-47-1, Shreyas 19-3-66-2, Akshay 4-0-11-0.