Ghouse Baba rips through Kerala

Hyderabad's opening bowler Ghouse Baba had the Kerala batsmen on the run on the second day of their KSCA Coca Cola Trophy (under-25) match in Bangalore on Monday. Put in to bat, Kerala struggled to score 146 for nine off 62 overs.

Rain had washed out the opening day's play yesterday. Today too there was a delayed start and Kerala were on the back foot from the opening over when Ghouse Baba had CM Deepak leg before for a duck with his second ball. In his next over, Ghouse Baba had the other opener C Sanju caught by wicketkeeper S Rohit for one. This was the first of four catches by Rohit. He latched on to his second when Krishna Kumar edged Ghouse Baba. That was Ghouse Baba's third wicket in his first three overs.

From 12 for three, Kerala started a slow recovery. First, SM Samith (49) and Vinan G Nair (30) added 43 runs for the fourth wicket off 12 overs. Then Ghouse Baba struck again by dismissing Nair, Ramakrishna (4) and CM Shyam. Kerala were now 64 for six and Ghouse Baba had taken all the wickets.

The second phase of the recovery was effected by the patient Samith and Shaju (42) who added 66 runs for the seventh wicket off 31 overs. Shaju dominated the partnership and hit five fours and a six. He batted two hours and faced 100 balls. Samith's vigil of 216 minutes came to an end when he was out for 49. He faced 147 balls and hit three boundaries. Ghouse Baba took his seventh wicket shortly before close. He ended the day with the excellent figures of 24-8-55-7.