Bad light stalled Bihar’s push for victory after it wiped out almost the entire last session in the Ranji Trophy match against Kerala at the Moin Ul Haq Stadium on Sunday.
Fading light forced the umpires to suspend play when only 2.1 overs were bowled after the tea break. The conditions didn’t improve, forcing the umpires to call off play 15 minutes before the scheduled close.
Bihar was left frustrated as it had Kerala in a spot of bother, reducing the visitor to 62 for two, in the second innings and had two tentative batters at the crease when bad light intervened. Kerala, after conceding a first innings lead of 150 runs, had lost both its openers Rohan Kunnummal (37) and Anand Krishna (12) before the stoppage. Sachin Baby (6 batting) and Akshay Chandran (2 batting) had a nervous stay in the middle when umpires gave them the offer of bad light and they trooped off in relief.
Kunnummal and Krishna had started cautiously against Bihar’s medium pacers Veer Pratap Singh and Vipul Krishna. But Kunnummal used his supple wrists to drill boundaries whenever they erred in length. Krishna looked solid until a misjudgement cost him his wicket to Vipul. As tea approached Kunnummal went into a defensive shell and left-arm spinner Ashutosh breached his defence with a quicker delivery.
Earlier in the morning, Sakibul Gani thwarted Kerala’s hopes of wrapping up Bihar innings quickly. The batter continued to torment Kerala bowlers, playing his drives with flourish. Krishna struck a few boundaries until Basil Thampi clean bowled him for 14. Pratap fell cheaply, edging Akhin Sathar to wicketkeeper Vishnu Raj for 5.
Gani completed his 150 and added useful runs with Veer for the eighth wicket. Jalaj Saxena finally induced an edge from Gani which was caught on the second attempt by Akshay in the slips. Captain Ashutosh Aman (26) with help of Veer and Himanshu added 50 runs for the last two wickets which took Bihar’s lead to 150.
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