A dogged century by Chhattisgarh captain Harpreet Singh Bhatia (152) defied Kerala for major part of the day but another five wicket haul by Jalaj Saxena put the host on road to victory in the Ranji Trophy cricket match at the KCA-St.Xavier’s College ground here on Thursday.
Jalaj wheeled away with metronomic accuracy prying on the batters’ patience to take his second five-wicket haul (6/75) of the match as the Chhattisgarh was dismissed for 287 and it left Kerala with a target of 126 on Friday.
On a wicket of variable bounce, Harpreet Singh showed a lot of patience in choosing the right balls to play his forcing shots. While Jalaj kept it tight, rest of the Kerala bowlers erred by offering enough loose deliveries to Chhattisgarh batters.
The overnight pair of Harpreet Singh and Amandeep Khare were rarely tested in the morning as the pitch played true. The duo completed their fifty partnership but Jalaj foxed Amandeep (30) with a ball that bounced and forced him to edge to Sachin Baby at silly point.
Shashank Singh (16) negotiated the spinners well to add 64 runs with Harpreet Singh for the fourth wicket. But soon after lunch Shashank lost his patience and gave Jalaj the charge only to be stumped by Rahul.
Ajay Mandal joined his skipper and the duo was unhurried in adding 70 runs for the fifth wicket. But the vagaries of pitch accounted for Ajay Mandal (22) who was bowled by a ball that kept low from medium pacer N.P.Basil.
Harpreet changed gears and took a heavy toll on the predictable offerings from left arm spinner Sijomon to race to his 150. However, Jalaj castled him when Harpreet tried another big shot. Wicketkeeper M.S.S. Hussain (20) exposed the tail when he slogged Jalaj straight to Rohan at long on. Sourabh Majumdar (1) edged a lifter from Fanoos to Akshay in the slips and Jalaj returned to snap up Sumit Ruikar (13) to end the innings.
The scores:
Chhattisgarh-Ist Innings 149
Kerala-Ist Innings 311
Chhattisgarh- 2nd innings
Rishab Tiwari c Sanju b Jalaj 0, Sanidhya Hurkat lbw Vaisakh 0, Harpreet Singh Bhatia b Jalaj 152, Amandeep Khare c Baby b Jalaj 30, Shashank Singh st Rahul b Jalaj 16, Ajay Mandal b Basil 22, Mayank Yadav c Baby b Vaisakh 5, M.S.S. Hussain c Rohan b Jalaj 20, Sumit Ruikar c Sanju b Jalaj 13, Sourabh Majumdar c Akshay b Fanoos 1, Ravi Kiran not out 0.
Extras (w 3, b 20, 1b 5): 28
Total (in 89.4 overs): 287
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-55, 4-119, 5-189, 6-224, 7-264, 8-277, 9-286.
Kerala bowling
Jalaj 37.4-7-75-6, Vaisakh 24-3-66-2, Sijomon Joseph 6-0-38-0, Fanoos 10-0-43-1, Basil 8-0-26-1, Akshay 4-0-14-0.
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