Kerala CA lose ground, then recover

Kerala Cricket Association XI got off to a good start, lost ground in late afternoon but made a recovery of sorts late in the day on the opening day of their Buchi Babu All India invitation cricket tournament pre quarterfinal against Jolly Rovers at the IIT-Chemplast ground in Chennai on Sunday. From 172 for one, Kerala slid to 185 for four before ending with a closing score of 275 for seven at stumps.

Openers Varun Girilal (87) and MA Sorab (25) put on 57 runs off 14.5 overs after Kerala opted to bat. Then Girilal and Prasanth Menon (54) consolidated the position with a second wicket stand of 115 runs off 38.5 overs. But midway through the day, Jolly Rovers came back strongly into the match. First Girilal was bowled by Tinu Yohannan. During his 231-minute stay at the crease, the opening batsman faced 155 balls and hit 13 of them to the fence. Experienced campaigner Sunil Oasis did not last long, being caught by Dinesh Mongia off Ganesh Kumar for two. Shortly afterwards Yohannan bowled Prasanth Menon who batted a shade over three hours for 54. He faced 138 balls and hit seven of them to the ropes.

Kerala, having lost three wickets for 13 runs off 5.3 overs suddenly lost the initiative. Vipinlal and B Ramprakash however started a rally by adding 40 runs for the fifth wicket off 9.4 overs. Vipinlal's role in this partnership was totally passive, scoring just six runs off 39 balls. He batted for almost an hour before he was bowled by R Ramkumar. Then Ramprakash and skipper KN Ananthapadmanabhan continued the recovery process by figuring in a 44-run sixth wicket partnership that lasted 17.5 overs. Ramprakash was out shortly before close, caught behind by TR Arasu off Ganesh Kumar for a fighting 47. The experienced player batted 132 minutes, faced 88 balls and hit four fours and a six. Ramkumar then had Sreekumar Nair caught by Yohannan for a duck. Ananthapadmanabhan however carried on and was unbeaten with 30 at close. He has so far batted 104 minutes and has dispatched four of the 59 balls he has faced to the ropes.

The Jolly Rovers bowling was chiefly in the hands of Yohannan, Ramkumar and Ganesh Kumar who sent down 20, 27 and 21 overs respectively to bag two wickets each.