Thalassery: Kerala pulled long faces as Harshad Khadiwale reached his half century to take Maharashtra within reach the first innings lead after his teammates had condemned the home side to just 151 on Day One of the Ranji Trophy Group ‘C’ match at Thalassery on Saturday.
Khadiwale had notched up 12 boundaries, for his unbeaten 67, just five fours less than the number put together by Kerala as a unit.
Maharashtra finished at 106 for 1 and the home side could only be relieved that a miserable opening day was finally over and hope that some turnaround awaits them the next day.
The track suited slow bowling, and having crushed Himachal at the same venue courtesy some gutsy spin attack just a week ago, Kerala never saw this one coming. The home team’s decision to bat first was soon the wrong choice as wickets kept falling at regular intervals.
Left arm spinner Akshay Darekar did most of the damage, dismissing both the openers Jagadeesh V.A. and Nikhilesh Surendran before taking out the last recognised pair of Robert Fernandez and Vinoop Manoharan.
Skipper Sachin Baby attempted to rescue the sinking ship with a patient 30, but the brief period where in he held a 46-run stand with Robert was the best he or the entire squad could offer.
It wasn’t all lost until Sachin's dismissal by off-spinner Chirag Khurana. The home side lost both Robert and Sachin in a span of six
deliveries and the scorecard went plummeting from a hapless 121/6 to a hopeless 127/8 as Khurana and Darekar went hunting for more.
BRIEF SCORES: Kerala 151 in 57 overs (Sachin 30, Jagadeesh 23, Darekar 4/54, Khurana 3/26, Domnic Joseph 2/33) vs Maharashtra 106/1 in 32 overs (Khadiwale 67 not out, Vijay Zol 28)
