Kochi: The final day held no surprises as Kerala drew with Maharashtra in their Ranji Trophy Group ‘C’ match here on Tuesday, enabling the visitors to take three points by virtue of the first innings lead.
The highlight of the day was Kerala captain Sachin Baby’s innings.
The southpaw had a golden chance to score his maiden first-class century, but was unluucky to fall four runs short.
Kerala resumed the day at 306 for 4. Sachin and Robert Fernandez (79) ensured led the home side scored 432 in the second innings to set Maha-rashtra a target of 270 runs.
With about forty overs remaining till the end of the match, Maharashtra did not press for an outright win and played it safe to end the match in a draw.
Sachin, who had scored a 54 the previous day, played in a patient manner alongside Robert Fernandez to ensure the morning session turned in Kerala’s favour. Adding 63 more runs to the overnight score of 306, the fifth wicket partnership of 144 runs turned out to be a crucial one for the home side in the match.
Maharashtra had to
wait for about three hours for their first wicket of the day, when Robert Ferndandez fell prey to left-arm spinner Askshay Darekar. With just a 200-run lead and almost two sessions left to play, Kerala sensed trouble but Robert’s replacement at the crease, Vinoop Manoharan held firm as he gave good support to his skipper.
Vinoop’s and Sachin Baby’s partnership lasted only 2.2 overs but 39 runs were put on by both the batsmen durng that brief but frenetic passage of play. Sachin Baby was the main contributor, hitting two sixes and a couple of boundaries while Vinoop scored just eight runs.
The sudden boost propelled Kerala past 400 but they lost three fur- ther wickets — Sachin, Vinoop and P. Prasanth — and the hosts ended their innings at 432.
In reply, Maharashtra’s innings started on a jit- tery note as they lost both their opening bats- men for only 27
