The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sreekumar Nair, Jagadeesh slam centuries

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Friday, Nov 16, 2007
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Sreekumar Nair, Jagadeesh slam centuries

Sports Reporter

Palakkad: Two responsible men, former skipper Sreekumar Nair and current vice-captain V.A. Jagadeesh, surpassed their personal best as Kerala put on a commanding score against Services in the Ranji Trophy Plate league encounter at the Fort Maidan here on Thursday.

The duo shared an unbeaten 277-run stand for the third wicket as the home side made 293 for two on the first day of the Group ‘A’ encounter.

Yashpal Singh, the visiting skipper, put the host in.

It seemed a good decision at the start as Kerala openers Sambasiva Sharma and Sony Cheruvathur (captain) got out fairly quickly.

With the scoreboard reading 16 for two it was left to Sreekumar (169, 267b, 237m, 25x4) and Jagadeesh (101, 254b, 344m, 13x4) to shoulder the burden.

First, they saw through the fiery pace attack of Fazil Muhammed and Hari Prasad with their deft stroke play.

Later, they handled the four-pronged spin attack with absolute ease.

Sreekumar cut, drove, pulled, and at times even stepped out to take the sting out of the attack.

The 28-year-old who raced to his century with a neat leg glance, erased his personal best of 133 scored against the same team in 2003.

It was Sreekumar’s fourth Ranji ton.

Jagadeesh let go the swingers and punished only the loose deliveries.

But it was worth a wait as he managed to post his maiden Ranji hundred.

His previous best was a 70 scored against Orissa in 2004.

Vedam Hariharan, Kerala’s coach, said, “I am glad we were asked to bat. We had a target in mind and we are more or less there. Sreekumar, certainly, was the master of the day.

“He guided Jagadeesh very well right through the day. We look to continue from here and post a score of over 450.”

Biju Nair, Services coach, said, “We failed to capitalise on those two early wickets. I would blame the bowlers for it because they did not pressurise the batsmen by bowling in the right areas.”

The scores: Kerala — 1st innings: S. Sharma b Muhammed 1, S.K. Cheruvathur (run out) 13, V.A. Jagadeesh (batting) 101, S. Nair (batting) 169; Extras: (lb-3, nb-6) 9; Total: (for two wickets in 90 overs) 293.

Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-16.

Services bowling: Muhammed 13-4-53-1, Prasad 11-1-40-0, Mohanty 22-3-65-0, Sharma 31-9-72-0, Yashpal 9-0-36-0, Chatterjee 2-0-10-0, Upadhyay 2-0-14-0.

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