Familiar scenes: Sachin Baby walked in when the score was at four for two and quickly got to work.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The recurring theme of the season was played out again in the morning by Kerala — the loss of the toss, early wickets and a customary Sachin Baby rescue act. However, for a change, Sachin Baby (91) wasn’t alone in the revival act as he found willing partners in Rohan Prem (54) and captain Sanju Samson (57 batting) and the trio took Kerala to a position of comfort (219 for four) at the end of the truncated opening day’s play against Chhattisgarh at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium here on Friday.
Samson didn’t have much luck with the toss as he lost it again for the third time this season. There was help for Chhattisgarh opening bowlers who made the ball dart around and Kerala openers were completely at sea.
Ravi Kiran disturbed Rohan Kunnammal’s stumps with an inswinger when the batter tried an expansive drive and a few balls later Ashish Chouhan ended Jalaj Saxena’s misery after inducing an edge to Rishab Tiwari in the gully.
It was with a sense of deja vu that Sachin Baby walked in when the score was at four for two. Baby smothered the early thrust from medium pacers with his watertight defence and as he got his eye in, the loose deliveries were driven with panache through the covers.
Baby looked set for another century but was unlucky. The batter got a leading edge to a ball which stopped on him as he shaped for the flick and was caught by a diving Sanjeet Desai at short square leg off Ashish Chouhan
Rohan Prem shrugged off his indifferent form by playing a watchful innings under pressure. Rohan survived the initial testing spell from medium pacers and gave solid support to Sachin Baby with whom he added 135-runs for the third wicket. The wicket fell against the tide through a run-out.
Baby sent back Rohan, who was eyeing a quick run and was half-way down the pitch, but the batter couldn’t beat the throw from Amandeep Khare from covers.
It wasn’t one his prettiest innings but Sanju Samson showed patience and responsibility to score a half-century. Sanju added 48-runs with Baby and was the dominant partner in the unbroken 32-run with Vishu Vinod (10 batting) which enabled Kerala to end the day on a high.
The scores:
Kerala — 1st innings: Rohan Kunnammal b Ravi 0, Jalaj Saxena c Tiwari b Ashish 0, Rohan Prem run out 54, Sachin Baby c Desai b Ashish 91, Sanju Samson batting 57, Vishnu Vinod batting 10; Extras (b-6, lb-1): 7; Total (for four wkts in 73 overs): 219.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-4, 3-139, 4-187.
Chhattisgarh bowling: Ravi 21-5-59-1, Ashish 20-7-47-2, Sourabh 7.5-1-30-0, Ajay 8-1-24-0, Shashank 15-1-48-0, Ashutosh 2-0-4-0, Chandrakar 0.1-0-0-0.