Kerala holds upper hand going into the last day

After being forced to follow on, 190 runs behind, Goa made a good start in their second innings, scoring 111 for one at stumps on the third day of the South Zone Ranji Trophy league match against Kerala at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Kochi on Friday.

Starting the day at 86/2 in reply to Kerala's first innings score of 370, Goa added only six more runs to the total when Yeshwant Barde was given out lbw to Tinu Yohannan for 43. In the following over Sreekumar Nair bowled Tanveer Jabbar for a second ball duck. When Ajay Kudua caught Satyajit Medappa for 34 of the bowling of Sreekumar Nair, Goa were reeling at 122/5. Kerala captain KN Ananthapadmanabhan (3/49) and Renjith Menon (2/10) ran through the Goa second half as they lost their last five wickets for 58 runs. Goa were asked to follow on for the first time in the Ranji Trophy against Kerala as their first innings came to an end at 180.

In their second innings, the Goa batsmen applied themselves admirably to finish the day in a good position. Though Goa lost Barde early in their innings, Satyajit Medappa compiled a patient half century, his first of the season and he came through unbeaten on 63 with Vivek Kolambkar giving him company on 32.