Kerala faced another familiar middle order collapse, but crisis man Sachin Baby stood tall to score his 11th First Class century as the team ended the second day in command against Assam in a Ranji Trophy clash at the ACA Stadium here on Saturday.
A counter-attacking 131 by former captain Baby carried Kerala from 276 for seven to 419. The visitor, which was cruising at 217 for one, lost wickets in clusters after lunch. However, Baby stepped in to lead the recovery with the tailenders.
Medium pacer Basil Thampi (19) helped Baby add 66 for the eighth wicket while his new ball partner M.D. Nidheesh (12) was involved in a 62-run stand for the ninth as Kerala posted a formidable total. The team then took two wickets to reduce the host to 14 for two at stumps.
A collapse looked remote when overnight batters Krishna Prasad and Rohan Prem negotiated the Assam attack without any alarms in the first session and furthered the second wicket stand to 84.
Prem overcame a tentative start to score briskly against the spinners to reach his half-century. But just before lunch, Rahul Sharma foxed the batter with a ball that bounced and forced him to feather a catch to silly point for 50.
Slide
The slide started when Krishna Prasad (80) fell in the first over after lunch to Rahul with Rahul Hazarika taking another sharp catch at silly point.
Vishnu Vinod clubbed a few boundaries to race to 19 but was run out by a direct hit from Akash Sengupta. Akshay Chandran (0) and Jalaj Saxena (1) perished to loose shots while Rahul had Shreyas Gopal stumped for 18.
Baby, who till then was accumulating his run, quickly switched to attacking mode. He farmed the strike and stepped out to whack boundaries with ridiculous ease against both pacers and spinners to take the match away from Assam’s grasp.
The scores:
Kerala — 1st Innings: Rohan Kunnummal st Ghadigaonkar b Sarmah 83, Krishna Prasad c Hazarika b Rahul 80, Rohan Prem c Hazarika b Rahul 50, Sachin Baby c Das b Hussain 131, Vishnu Vinod run out 19, Akshay Chandran b Rahul 0, Shreyas Gopal st Ghadigaonkar b Sarmah 18, Jalaj Saxena c Ghadigaonkar b Aksash 1, Basil Thampi c Sarmah b Hussain 16, M.D. Nidheesh b Hussain 12, Vishweshar Suresh (not out) 0, Extras (b-4, 1b-4, nb-1): 9; Total (in 113.4 overs): 419.
Fall of wickets: 1-133, 2-217, 3-222, 4-253, 5-253, 6-275, 7-276, 8-342, 9-404.
Assam bowling: Hussain 31.4-8-82-3, Lachit 16-0-56-0, Rahul 15.3-1-56-3, Akash 20-4-71-1, Riyan 7-0-28-0, Sarmah 16.3-1-82-2, Gokul 7-0-36-0.
Assam — 1st Innings: Rishav Das batting 5, Rahul Hazarika b Thampi 9, Siddharth Sarmah lbw Jalaj 0, S.C. Ghadigaoankar batting 0; Total (for two wkts. in five overs): 14.
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-14.
Kerala bowling: Thampi 2-0-8-1, Jalaj 2-0-6-0, Shreyas 1-1-0-0.
