Ranji Trophy 2023-24: Azharuddeen knock puts Kerala on top against Chattisgarh on Day 2

Azharuddeen’s sweetly timed shots weren’t a revelation today but his temperament and a well-paced knock carried Kerala to a challenging total of 350.

FILE- Kerala batsman Mohammed Azharuddeen | Photo Credit: Akhilesh Kumar/The Hindu

Mohammed Azharuddeen made his comeback into the Ranji team, after a four-year hiatus, memorable with a cultured knock of 85 runs which was the cornerstone of a dominant day for Kerala in the Ranji Trophy cricket match against Chhattisgarh at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International stadium here on Saturday.

His sweetly timed shots weren’t a revelation today but his temperament was and Azharuddeen’s well-paced knock carried Kerala to a challenging total of 350.

Medium pacer M.D. Nidheesh, with a probing spell at the fag end of the day took two wickets in an over, reduced the host to 100 for four to enable Kerala to end the second day on a high note.

If not for a defiant unbeaten 50 by Sanjeet Desai Chhattisgarh would have been in deep trouble. Sanjeet repaired the innings along with Ashutosh Singh (31) after the host lost openers, Shashank Chandrakar (8) and Rishab Tiwari (7) cheaply.

Sanjeet added 75 runs with Ashutosh Singh (31) for the second wicket to frustrate the visitor. But Nidheesh bowled with sustained hostility in his second spell and dismissed Ashutosh and Amandeep Khare in the same over.

The day’s opening session belonged to both Azharuddeen and the young medium pacer Ashish Chouhan, who became the first bowler from Chhattisgarh to take five wickets (five for 100) on debut.

Ashish gave Chhattisgarh a dream start when he had Sanju Samson, on his overnight score of 57, snicking a catch to wicketkeeper K.D. Eknath in the second over.

Azharuddeen got into his groove pretty early and struck two crisp boundaries off Shashank Singh. Vishnu Vinod, for a change, was willing to graft while Azhar played with more aggression.

However, Azhar, by his standards, played with a lot of restraint and put away only the bad balls. The seventh wicket stand between Azhar and Vishnu added 80 runs, but the latter fell, playing a wild hoick to Ashish. Shreyas Gopal was dismissed cheaply by Ashish for five. Left with the tail, Azhar opened out and hit his first six, a swivelled pull over fine leg and soon fell trying to repeat the stroke against Ravi Kiran.