Ranji Trophy 2023-24: Gani’s defiant knock gives Bihar lead against Kerala

Gani’s century (120 batting) and his two century stands with opener Piyush Kumar Singh (51) and Bipin Saurabh (60) saw Bihar finish the second day at 270 for five, with a lead of 43.

Sakibul Gani’s unbeaten century (120 not out) enabled Bihar to take the lead against Kerala in the Ranji Trophy match at the Moin Ul Haq stadium in Patna on Saturday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Just before close on the second day, centurion Sakibul Gani mistimed a shot off Akshay Chandran and the ball ballooned up towards extra cover, M.D.Nidheesh, running backwards from mid on, made a half-hearted attempt as the ball dropped in front of him. The miss summed up an unabsorbed day for Kerala in which it lacked intent and allowed the home side to enjoy its best day of the season with the bat.

Gani’s century (120 batting) and his two century stands with opener Piyush Kumar Singh (51) and Bipin Saurabh (60) saw Bihar finish the second day of the Ranji Trophy match against Kerala at 270 for five. The host took a handy 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. Spanking drives and rousing pulls punctuated his innings as Kerala bowlers operated without the desired accuracy. Gani got into his stride early by clipping Akhin Sathar behind square for his first boundary. However, he played 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 Saurabh’s aggressive knock after tea took the wind out of Kerala’s sails. Bipin was severe on the Kerala spinners and used his feet to drill boundaries on both sides of the wicket. Gani went into a shell as he neared century but completed it in style by lifting Shreyas over square leg for a six. Bipin threw it away with wild slog but not before adding 110-runs for the fifth wicket with Gani.

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Earlier, Akhin had a dream start to his career, taking a wicket with his third ball after opener Sraman Nigrodh edged him to Vishnu Vinod in the slips. Akhin bowled with a lot of heart in his first spell during which he also bowled Babul Kumar with an inswinger. However, he was also guilty of being wayward towards the latter part of his bowling spells. In the morning, Akhin defended stoutly to enable Shreyas add another 24 runs to the total. The last wicket stand produced 51 runs but what Kerala needed was more contributions from the top order.

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 Sraman 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 Pratap b Vipul 22, Basil Thampi lbw Himanshu 0, M.D.Nidheesh lbw Himanshu 0,Akhin Sathar not out 0

Extras: (b-4, 1b-8, w-3): 15

Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-15, 3-15, 4-34, 5-84, 6-102, 7-163, 8-164, 9-176

Total ( in 74.3 overs): 227

Bihar bowling

Veer 10-5-26-3, Vipul 19-3-57-2, Ashutosh 18.3-1-47-1, Pratap 4-0-21-0, Himanshu 22-4-63-4, Gani 1-0-1-0.

Bihar -1st innings

Piyush Kumar Singh b Shreyas 51, Sraman Nigrodh c Vishnu b Akhin 0, Babul Kumar b Akhin 16, Sakibul Gani batting 120, Rishav b Shreyas 2, Bipin Saurabh c Akhin b Jalaj 60, Vipul Krishna batting 0

Extras (b-10, lb-10, w-1): 21

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, M.D. Nidheesh 11-0-41-0, Jalaj 15-4-47-1, Shreyas 19-3-66-2, Akshay 4-0-11-0.