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Weather and wicket hold the key

Principal Correspondent

Nobody has a clue about how the wicket will behave

PERINTHALMANNA: The weather and the wicket, both extremely unpredictable at the moment, hold the key to the Ranji Trophy Plate encounter between Kerala and Jammu & Kashmir, which gets underway at the Perinthalmanna Cricket Stadium here on Wednesday.

Though the sun has been shining brightly for the past few days, the North-East monsoon is capable of changing its mind any moment.

Newest venue

And nobody has a clue about how the wicket would behave; there is little to draw from history either, as this is the first match of any consequence on this ground, the newest first-class venue of Kerala that was inaugurated just a couple of years ago. “It could be a batting wicket, but it could also keep low, making life difficult for batsmen,” Kerala coach P. Ranganathan speculated.

“Only after the match begins would we get any idea about the wicket.”

Raiphy will be missed

That, however, is not the only worry for the coach. He cannot field his captain Raiphy Vincent Gomez, who is recovering from a twisted ankle. Robert Fernandez thus will lead the side.

“Raiphy will be missed; he is not just one of our main batsmen, but a more than useful medium-pacer as well,” said Ranganathan. “Allrounder K.J. Rakesh takes his place.”

He added he was looking to get full points from this match. “We have to go for an outright win as we have to face tougher opponents later on, like Maharashtra.”

Kerala with lead

Going into the second match in Group ‘B', Kerala has three points, after taking the first innings lead against Services in New Delhi, thanks largely to a fine hundred from its most experienced batsman, Sreekumar Nair.

Jammu hasn't opened its account yet as it lost its opening match to Maharashtra with only its wicketkeeper Arshad Bhatt reaching fifty (he had a good game with scores of 77 and 95). “Our team has the potential to bounce back,” Jammu manager Manzoor Ahmed Wazir said. “And if there is any help from the wicket our seam bowlers Abid Nabi and Saimullah Beig could pose a few problems for Kerala's batsmen.”

The teams (from): Kerala: Robert Fernandez (captain), Abhishek Hegde, V.A. Jagadeesh, Rohan Prem, Sreekumar Nair, C.M. Thejas, K.J. Rakesh, P. Prasanth, Sony Cheruvathur, Prasanth Parameswaran, K.R. Sreejith, P.U. Anthaf, C. Ramesh, Sunil Thomas and C.P. Riswan. Coach: P. Ranganathan.

Jammu & Kashmir: Abid Nabi (captain), Asif Jeelani, Saimullah Beig, Rohi Bhat, Arshad Bhatt, Ian Dev Singh, Raman Dutta, Hardeep Singh, Javed Ahmed, Sameer Khajuria, Dhruv Mahajan, Majeed Dhar, Obaid Ahmed, Rahil Sambyal and Sameer Ali. Coach: Abdul Qayyum .

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