Uttar Pradesh showcased its myriad strengths to shut out Kerala from the contest on the third day of the Ranji Trophy cricket match at the SD College ground in Alappuzha on Sunday.
The near-perfect day for the visitors was orchestrated by Ankit Rajpoot’s fiery opening spell in the morning, which brought a swift end to Kerala’s innings and gave Uttar Pradesh the lead of 59 runs.
Skipper Aryan Juyal’s well-paced century (115 batting) and his 130-run unbroken second wicket stand with Priyam Garg (49 batting) saw Uttar Pradesh end the day at 219 for one and with an overall lead of 278.
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The Kerala bowling was unthreatening on a pitch which had shed off the spitefulness it displayed in the opening hour. The openers Samarth Singh and Juyal played without any alarms to add 89 runs for the first wicket.
Jalaj Saxena gave Kerala a brief lift by trapping Samarth (43) in front. However, after Samarth’s dismissal, Juyal quickly changed from a careful accumulator to an enforcer. Juyal showed intent by lofting Jalaj over long-on for a towering six to bring up his fifty.
Juyal then played at a frantic pace, flaying the Kerala bowling to reach his second First-Class hundred. Garg also came out of his defensive shell to put the Kerala attack to sword in the last session.
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Earlier, Rajpoot used his broad shoulders to extract steep bounce and blew away Kerala with sustained hostility. The lanky bowler struck in the first over as Shreyas Gopal (36) poked at an outswinger and was caught by Saurabh Kumar in the slips.
Jalaj’s (7) half-hearted pull ended in the hands of Saurabh at the square-leg fence while Basil Thampi (2) was beaten by pace and trapped in front. M.D. Nidheesh used the big handle to strike Saurabh for two fours and a six for some welcome runs but Rajpoot returned to bowl Vaiskah Chandran (5) through the gate to give his side a handy lead.
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