PERINTHALMANNA: Kerala took three points, courtesy a first innings lead, from their home fixture against Tripura after bundling out the visitors for 237 on the final day of their Ranji Trophy match at the KCA Cricket Stadium in Perinthalmanna on Tuesday. An opportunity missed to record a win against Tripura, the whipping boys of the Group C, partly due to rain interruptions means Kerala are still winless this season. They have 12 points from five matches including four draws.
Kerala needed only five overs in the morning to wrap up the Tripura innings after the visiting side had resumed with the overnight score of 224 for the loss of seven wickets. Sandeep Warrier packed the tailenders as he picked up a wicket each in the three overs he bowled in the morning session.
First, he produced an edge from Saurabh Das that carried to wicketkeeper and captain Sanju V Samson. T R Mandal and Rana Datta fell prey to him in consecutive overs as Kerala ensured three points from the fixture, by virtue of a first innings lead of 110 runs.
The second innings batting from Kerala saw another fine innings from Rohan Prem who had already hit a century in the first innings. The left-hand batsman hit a 62-ball 72 to take Kerala’s second innings score to 117 for four before declaring.
Rohan is now the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy 2015-16 season and has 650 runs to his credit after five matches. Rohan is followed by Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer, with 633 runs, and Himachal Pradesh’s Paras Dogra (624), in the run-scorers chart.
Scoreboard
Kerala (I Innings): 347
Tripura (I Innings) 236
Kerala (II Innings) V A Jagadeesh b Murasingh 14,
Sanju Samson c Das b Murasingh 0, Rohan Prem (not out) 72, Sachin Baby c Chowdhary b Murasingh 18,
Akshay Kodoth st Bose b Das 7, Extras (B-2, LB-2, W-1, NB-1) 6, Total (4 wkts, 19.3 overs) 117 decl. Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-55, 3-92, 4-117. Bowling: Murasingh 10-1-57-3, Rana Dutta 5-0-34-0, Swapan Das 4.3-0-22-1.
Tripura (II Innings) Udiyan Bose (not out) 32, Arindam Das (not out) 18, Extras (nb-3) 3, Total (for no loss, 17 overs) 53. Bowling: K S Monish 8-2-30-0, A R Chandran 8-3-15-0, Rohan Prem 1-0-8-0.
Ranji round-up
Group A
At Kolkata: Bengal 334 & 164 bt Vidarbha 202 & 191 (Ganesh Satish 96, Pragyan Ojha 4/60, Veerpratap Singh 3/23) by 105 runs.
Rohtak: Haryana 168 & 111 lost to Assam 120 & 160/4 (Amit Verma 51 not out, K B Arun Karthick 48, A H Hooda 2/62) by 6 wickets
Group B
Valsad: Gujarat 505 bt Bardoa 252 & 207 (Ambati Rayudu 43, Hardik Pandya 43, R H Bhatt 4/48, Axar Patel 4/71) by an innings and 46 runs.
Mumbai: Mumbai 610/9 declared drew with Uttar Pradesh 440 (Himanshu Asnora 92, Piyush Chawla 84, Abhishek Nayar 4/63, Vishal Dabholkar 4/116) & 140/1 (Asnora 68 not out, Umang Sharma 62 not out)
Chennai: Andhra 203 drew with Tamil Nadu 164/7 in 37 overs (Baba Indrajith 43, R Sathish 33, Dinesh Karthik 29, Bondavarapu Sudhakar 2/44)
Group C
Dharamshala: Himachal Pradesh 531 drew with Services 448/8 (Yashpal Singh 118, Rajat Palliwal 107, Soumik Chatterjee 57, S N Nirmohi 3/62, A N Chauhan 3/101)
Jamshedpur: Jharkhand 551/8 declared drew with J&K.