Bad light stalled Bihar’s push for victory after it wiped out almost the entire last session’s play in the Ranji Trophy cricket match against Kerala at the Moin Ul Haq Stadium here on Sunday.
Fading light forced the umpires to suspend play when only 2.1 overs were bowled after tea. The conditions didn’t improve and the proceedings were called off 15 minutes before the scheduled close.
Bihar was left frustrated as it had Kerala in a spot of bother, reducing the visitor to 62 for two in the second innings and had two tentative batters at the crease when bad light intervened.
Kerala, after conceding a first innings lead of 150, had lost both its openers Rohan Kunnummal (37) and Anand Krishna (12) before the stoppage. Sachin Baby (six batting) and Akshay Chandran (two batting) had a nervous stay in the middle when umpires gave them the offer of bad light and they trooped off in relief.
Cautious start
Kerala’s opening batters Rohan Kunnummal and Anand Krishna started cautiously against Bihar’s medium-pacers Veer Pratap Singh and Vipul Krishna. But Rohan used his supple wrists to drill boundaries whenever they erred in length while Krishna looked solid until an error of misjudgement cost him his wicket to Vipul.
As tea approached, Rohan went into a defensive shell and left-arm spinner Ashutosh breached his defence with a quicker delivery.
Earlier in the morning, Sakibul Gani thwarted Kerala’s hopes of wrapping up Bihar innings quickly. The batter continued to torment the bowlers, playing his drives with flourish. Vipul Krishna used the long handle to strike a few boundaries until Basil Thampi bowled him for 14. Pratap fell cheaply, edging Akhin Sathar to wicketkeeper Vishnu Raj for five.
Gani completed his 150 and added useful runs with Veer Pratap for the eighth wicket. Jalaj Saxena finally induced an edge from Gani which was caught in the second attempt by Akshay in the slips.
Captain Ashutosh Aman (26), with the help of Veer Pratap and Himanshu, added 50 for the last two wickets which took Bihar’s lead to 150.
The scores:
Kerala — 1st innings: 227.
Bihar — 1st innings: Piyush Kumar Singh b Shreyas 51, Sraman Nigrodh c Vishnu b Akhin 0, Babul Kumar b Akhin 16, Sakibul Gani c Akshay b Jalaj 150, Rishav b Shreyas 2, Bipin Saurabh c Akhin b Jalaj 60, Vipul Krishna b Thampi 14, Pratap c Vishnu b Akhin 5, Veer Pratap Singh b Shreyas 16, Ashutosh Aman b Thampi 26, Himanshu Singh (not out) 0; Extras (b-19, lb-17, w-1): 37; Total (in 113.3 overs): 377.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-29, 3-138, 4-158, 5-268, 6-289, 7-300, 8-327, 9-367.
Kerala bowling: Thampi 18.3-6-58-2, Akhin 18-5-50-3, M.D. Nidheesh 19-2-61-0, Jalaj 23.5-5-67-2, Shreyas 31-6-94-3, Akshay 4-0-11-0.
Kerala — 2nd innings: Rohan Kunnummal b Ashutosh 37, Anand Krishna lbw Vipul 12, Sachin Baby batting 6, Akshay Chandran batting 2; Extras (b-4, 1b-1): 5; Total (for two wkts. in 17 overs): 62.
Fall of wickets: 1-49, 2-58.
Bihar bowling: Veer 5-0-27-0, Vipul 8-2-23-1, Ashutosh 4-0-7-1.