Kerala’s batting flowered pretty late in the season but it will hardly make a difference to the state of the contest as the visitor’s passive approach and easy contentment will likely consign the match to a tame draw on Monday.
Kerala, riding on centuries from Akshay Chandran (184) and Sachin Baby (113) declared its first innings at 514 for seven against Andhra – with a lead of 242 - and by close on the penultimate day it had reduced the host to 19 for one at the Dr. P.V.G. Raju ACA Sports Complex stadium here on Sunday.
But on a flat track, it will require a poor batting performance from the host to lose the match on the final day. The marked reluctance by the visitor to quicken the scoring was surprising, and it overshadowed the centuries from Akshay and Baby.
It only took half-an-hour in the morning for Kerala (overnight 258 for three) to go past Andhra’s first innings score of 272 but overnight batters Baby and Akshay eschewed risks and extended their fourth wicket stand to 184 runs. Baby was defeated by the bounce which Manish Golamaru extracted and was forced to edge a catch to substitute Nithish Kumar Reddy in the first slip.
Akshay got a life on 63 when Ashwin Hebbar at the third slip couldn’t latch on to catch when the batter slashed at a delivery from Girinath Reddy. Akshay made Andhra pay dearly for the lapse as he along with Salman Nizar milked the bowling to add 126 runs for the fifth wicket.
Manish disturbed Salman’s (58) stumps when the batter missed the cut. Mohammed Azharuddeen took on the spinners and played the big shots to increase the pace of scoring. He clattered boundaries off both Shoaib Mohammed Khan and Manish to quickly reach 40 and perished while trying for another big shot. Baby declared the innings when Akshay was bowled by Shoaib, trying to go for a rare big hit.
N.P. Basil trapped debutant Revanth Reddy in front to give Kerala a good start. But Maheep Kumar and Ashwin Hebbar survived the hostile spell from Thampi and Basil.
Andhra -- 1st innings: 272.
Kerala -- 1st innings: Rohan Kunnummal c Rasheed b Shoaib 61, Jalaj Saxena c Aswin b Raju 4, Krishna Prasad c Girinath b Manish 43, Sachin Baby c (sub) Nitish b Manish 113, Akshay Chandran b Shoaib 184, Salman Nizar b Manish 58, Mohammed Azharuddeen c (sub) Nitish bt Manish 40, Akhil Scaria not out 2; Extras (b-5, lb-3, w-1): 9; Total (for seven wkts decl. in 161.4 overs): 514.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-94, 3-124, 4-305, 5-431, 6-506, 7-514.
Andhra bowling: Girinath 20-2-63-0, Raju 28-4-99-1, Ashwin 13-2-37-0 Manish 52-6-161-4, Shoaib 45.4-11-123-2, Karan 1-0-4-0. Rasheed 2-0-19-0.
Andhra-2nd innings: K. Revanth Reddy lbw N.P. Basil 5, K. Maheep Kumar (batting) 8, Ashwin Hebbar (batting) 2. Extras (b 4): 4; Total (for one wkts in seven overs): 19.
Fall of wicket: 1-5.
Kerala bowling: Thampi 3-0-9-0, N.P. Basil 3-1-6-1, Akshay 1-1-0-0.
