Just before close on the second day, century-maker Sakibul Gani mistimed a shot off Akshay Chandran and the ball ballooned towards extra cover. M.D. Nidheesh, running backwards from mid-on, tried his best but dropped the catch. The miss summed up the day for Kerala even as Bihar enjoyed its best day with the bat in this season’s Ranji Trophy.
Gani’s unbeaten 120, and his century stands with opener Piyush Singh (51) and Bipin Saurabh (60), saw the host finish the second day at 270 for five – a lead of 43 after bowling out the visitor for 227 in the morning.
Gani, until the blemish at the fag end of the day, never gave the Kerala bowlers a whiff of a chance. Sparkling drives and rousing pulls marked his innings as the Kerala bowlers failed to find the desired accuracy. Gani got into his stride early, clipping Akhin Sathar behind square for his first boundary. However, he preferred to play second fiddle to Piyush in the 109-run third-wicket stand. Shreyas gave Kerala a brief lift when he picked up two wickets before tea.
However, Bipin’s aggressive knock after the second break of the day took the wind out of Kerala’s sails. He used his feet well against the Kerala spinners, drilling boundaries on both sides of the wicket.
At the other end, Gani went into a shell as he neared the three-figure mark but reached the milestone in style by lofting Shreyas over square-leg for a six. Bipin, however, threw it away with a wild slog but not before adding 110 for the fifth wicket with Gani.
Earlier, Akhin had a dream start to his career, taking a wicket with his third ball after opener Sharman Nigrodh edged to Vishnu Raj at slip. Akhin bowled with a lot of heart during his first spell in which he also castled Babul Kumar with an inswinger. However, Akhin was guilty of being wayward in his subsequent spells.
In the morning, Akhin had defended stoutly and enabled Shreyas add 24 runs to the total. The last-wicket stand produced 51 to take Kerala past the 200-mark before Gani ruled the day.
The scores:
Kerala – 1st innings: Anand Krishnan c Gani b Veer 9, Rohan Kunnammal b Vipul 5, Sachin Baby b Veer 1, Vishnu Vinod c Nigrodh 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 Raghuvendra b Vipul 22, Basil Thampi lbw b Himanshu 0, M.D. Nidheesh lbw b Himanshu 0, Akhin Sathar (not out) 0; Extras (b-4, 1b-8, w-3): 15; Total (in 74.3 overs): 227.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-15, 3-15, 4-34, 5-84, 6-102, 7-163, 8-164, 9-176.
Bihar bowling: Veer 10-5-26-3, Vipul 19-3-57-2, Ashutosh 18.3-1-47-1, Raghuvendra 4-0-21-0, Himanshu 22-4-63-4, Gani 1-0-1-0.
Bihar – 1st innings: Piyush Singh b Shreyas 51, Sharman Nigrodh c Vishnu Raj b Akhin 0, Babul Kumar b Akhin 16, Sakibul Gani (batting) 120, Rishav Raj b Shreyas 2, Bipin Saurabh c Akhin b Jalaj 60, Vipul Krishna (batting) 0; Extras (b-10, lb-10, w-1): 21; Total (for five wkts. in 73 overs): 270.
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, Nidheesh 11-0-41-0, Jalaj 15-4-47-1, Shreyas 19-3-66-2, Akshay 4-0-11-0.
