Medappa, Rane frustrate Kerala's victory surge

A defiant century by Satyajit Medappa and stout resistance from Rohit Rane helped Goa stave off an outright defeat in their South Zone Ranji Trophy clash against Kerala at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Saturday. The match was called off in the 10th mandatory over after the visitors, following on, were bowled out for 321 in their second innings, just 131 ahead of Kerala.

Resuming on the final day at 111/1, Goa needed a further 79 to make their opponents bat again. Disaster struck with the seventh ball of the day when skipper V Kolambkar was snared at first slip off left arm spinner Sreekumar Nair without adding to his overnight score of 32. Medappa was joined by his former Tamil Nadu teammate Tanveer Jabbar who did not last long at the crease, falling to Kerala skipper Ananthapadmanabhan just after entering double figures.

Soon afterwards Medappa reached his century, featuring nine hits to the fence, off 215 balls. Leg spinner Ananthapadmanabhan struck twice more in successive overs before lunch to take care of Medappa and Dinesh Rao. The twenty six year old Medappa's five and a quarter hour knock had netted 116 runs. Goa went into lunch at 188/5, still two runs behind and in grave danger of an outright defeat.

It was Rohit Rane who was instrumental in frustrating Kerala's designs in the remaining two sessions. He marshalled the tail with resourcefulness, adding 72 for the seventh wicket with Syed Khalid. Rane was last out, caught by Girilal at deep midwicket for 75(164 balls, 6 fours) as Goa settled on 321 in 137.1 overs. Spinners Ananthapadmanabhan and Ramprakash bagged seven wickets between them.