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Gomez helps Kerala stay in the game

Special Correspondent

Nagpur: Raiphi Gomez employed the strong arm tactics initially to unnerve the Railways attack and thereafter played a very matured knock of 101 (124b, 10x4, 3x6) to give a ray of hope for Kerala to stay in the Ranji Trophy Plate group semifinal at the Vidarbha Cricket Stadium here on Friday.

Trailing on the first innings by 45 runs, Gomez’s onset was marked by a remarkable hitting of the Railways seamers, Harvinder Singh and Sanjay Bangar, before lunch.

A put away six off Bangar over mid-wicket and a few more rousing shots saw Kerala gain the momentum that was required to wipe out the lead in quick time.

After lunch, he dominated the show with some spectacular strokeplay and along with Anthony Sebastian raised 165 for the first wicket before, Bangar began a long spell to dismiss Gomez and thereafter claim four more wickets to restrict Kerala to 249 for seven in 60.5 overs; the fourth day’s play actually finishing at 5 p.m.

Different story

Kerala, though did not capitalise on Gomez’s individual brilliance and managed to add another 84 runs in a little over 24 overs.

In spite of being sent several messages to accelerate the scoring rate, Sebastian floundered against the left-arm spin of Murali Kartik and managed to make 19 runs off 67 balls in the post tea session.

Eventually, he fell to Bangar at 70 (161b, 5x4).

With Gomez flaying the bowling, Kartik attempted to choke the supply of runs by posting six men on the line and he himself was accurate enough to keep Sebastian stay rooted to the crease and defend.

Bangar in control

Bangar brought his years of experience while sending down 25 overs and forced the batsmen to make errors.

Promoted to No. 4, Vinan Nair holed out to substitute Kulamani Parida on the on side, but V.A. Jagadeesh showed common sense and urgency to push the scoring rate.

Kerala may bat for another 10 overs before applying the declaration, but it will largely depend on Jagadeesh and S. Anish to raise another 40 odd runs.

Railways stretched the lead to 45 with the eighth-wicket pair of Raja Ali and Kartik adding 63 runs.

Reaching the final would be Railways’s priority and having gained the first innings lead, it may play out for a draw.

Kerala, on the other hand, has to bowl exceptionally well to force a win.

The scores:

Kerala — 1st innings: 357.

Railways — 1st innings: S. Joshi lbw b Chandran 9, A. Pagnis c Anish b Chandran 2, S. Bangar lbw b Anish 13, H. Rawle b Anish 66, S. Sanyal lbw b Chruvathur 115, M. Rawat c & b Yohanan 77, K. Sharma c & b Yohanan 10, R. Ali lbw b Yohanan 31, M. Kartik c Cheruvathur b Nair 39, Harvinder c Prashant b Anish 10, S. Saxena (not out) 1, Extras (b-9, lb-16, nb-3, w-1): 29, Total (in 170.5 overs): 402.

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-20, 3-41, 4-160, 5-276, 6-303, 7-310, 8-373, 9-398.

Kerala bowling: Yohannan 37-11-87-3, Chandran 29-8-60-2, Cheruvathur 36-9-88-1, Gomez 8-2-20-0, Anish 37-12-67-3, Prashanth 12-2-37-0, Nair 10-5-13-1, Sebastian 1-0-5-0.

Kerala — 2nd innings): R. Gomez st. Rawat b Bangar 101, A. Sebastian b Bangar 70, S.K. Nair c & b Kartik 24, V.G. Nair c sub (Parida) b Bangar 1, V.A. Jagadeesh (batting) 36, P. Prashant lbw b Kartik 2, S. Cheruvathur b Bangar 1, R. Prem lbw b Bangar 2, Extras (lb-3, nb-8, w-1): 12; Total (for seven wkts. in 60.5 overs): 249.

Fall of wickets: 1-165, 2-198, 3-201, 4-223, 5-238, 6-243, 7-249.

Railways bowling: Harvinder 5-0-48-0, Bangar 24.5-2-92-5, Kartik 19-3-57-2, Saxena 8-1-30-0, Sanyal 4-0-19-0.

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