Thiruvananthapuram: A good start for Kerala in Ranji Trophy cricket once morest Services. After winning the toss and starting batting, Kerala scored 254 runs for the loss of six wickets at the end of the match on the first day. Sachin Baby who scored a century brought Kerala out of a big slump.
Rohan Kunnummal, Shaun Roger and NP Basil were also left out of the squad while the injured Sanju Samson was out once more. MD Nitish, Vatsal Govind and Salman Nisar replaced them.
Kerala started with collapse. Jalaj Saxena (8), Ponnam Rahul (0), Rohan Prem (1) and Vatsal Govind (1) who opened the innings with Ponnam Rahul in the absence of Rohan Kunnummal reached the pavilion with only 19 runs on the scoreboard. Kerala started fighting from there.
At one stage, Sachin was single-handedly leading Kerala from four wickets for just 19 runs. The player remained unbeaten on 133 runs off 235 balls with the help of 11 fours and a six. Captain Sijomon Joseph is at the crease with Sachin with 29 runs.
For services to Divesh Gurudev Pathania, P.S. Poonia took two wickets each while Arpit and Rajat Paliwal took one wicket each.
