Sachin Baby’s quick-fire knock keeps Kerala in the hunt for a win against Services

On fire: Sachin Baby helped Kera.la find quick runs in order to eek out a win on the final day.
| Photo Credit: File Photo: VIJAY SONEJI

Thiruvananthapuram

Sachin Baby is turning out to be Mr. Jeeves for Kerala this season. Kerala was in search of quick runs to force a declaration and found the ideal man in Sachin Baby whose finely paced innings (93) set up a challenging target (341) for Services on the third day of the Ranji Trophy match at the KCA-St. Xavier’s College ground on Thursday.

At stumps on the penultimate day, Services was 20 for no loss with openers Sufiyan Alam (11 batting) and G.S.Rohilla (9 batting) negotiating the seven overs without any difficulty.

It was a different role from what he did in the first innings but Sachin Baby did the role of enforcer with panache and gave the host a chance to force a win on the final day on Friday. After taking his time to find his groove, Baby changed gears and treated the bowlers with disdain. A century was well within his reach but he was bowled around his leg while going for another big hit off medium pacer Diwesh Pathania.

It was Kerala’s makeshift opening pair of P. Rahul and Vathsal Govind who set the ball rolling with a first wicket partnership of 56.

Off-spinner M.S. Rathee cleaned up both openers and Rohan Prem (16) perished to a catch in the deep. Salman Nizar joined Sachin Baby and the fourth pair chose their attacking moments wisely to add 91 runs in quick time. After Salman (40) fell to Arpiit Guleria, Akshay Chandran (20 not out) struck a few lusty blows.

Earlier, resuming at 167 for six, Services added 62 to its overnight score. Pulkit Narang (36) and M.S. Rathee (20) resisted the Kerala attack until M.D. Nidheesh broke through to have the latter caught behind by Rahul for 20. Pulkit then added 31 runs for the ninth wicket with P.S. Poonia (11) before Sijomon sent both of them back to finish with figures of three for 15.

The scores:

Kerala— 1st innings: 327.

Services— 1st Innings: S. G. Rohilla lbw Jalaj 31, Sufiyan Aslam lbw b Vaisakh 18, Ravi Chauhan lbw b Sijomon 50, Rahul Singh lbw b Vaisakh 19, Rajat Paliwal c Rahul b Nidheesh 11, L. S. Kumar b Jalaj 12, Pulkit Narang c Baby b Sijomon 36, M.S. Rathee c Rahul b Nidheesh 20, Diwesh Pathania c Sachin b Jalaj 8, P.S.Poonia b Sijomon 11, Arpit Guleira (not out) 0; Extras: (b-2, 1b-9, nb-2): 13; Total: (in 68.1 overs): 229.

Fall of wickets: 1-48, 2-56, 3-79, 4-97, 5-131, 6-159, 7-188, 8-197, 9-228.

Kerala bowling: Thampi 13-1-66-0, Nidheesh 10-0-41-2, Vaisakh 14-5-30-2, Jalaj 25-2-66-3, Sijomon 6-1-15-3.

Kerala —2nd innings: P.Rahul b Rathee 14, Vathsal Govind b Rathee.48, Rohan Prem c Alam b Narang 16, Sachin Baby b Pathania 93, Salman Nizar c Paliwal b Arpit 40, M.D. Nidheesh c Ravi Chauhan b P.S.Poonia 8, Akshay Chandran (not out) 20, Sijomon Joseph c Rathee b Pathania 0, Jalaj Saxena (not out) 2; Extras: (b-1):1; Total: (for seven wkts. decl. in 60 overs): 247.

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-71, 3-93, 4-184, 5-195, 6-238, 7-238.

Services bowling: Pathania 6-1-13-2, Poonia 7-0-34-1, Arpit 8-0-58-1, Rathee 20-0-69-2, Narang 18-3-60-1, Rohilla 1-0-7-0.

Services —2nd innings: S.G. Rohilla (batting) 9, Sufiyan Alam (batting) 11; Total: (for no loss in seven overs): 20.

Kerala bowling: Thampi 3-0-8-0, Vaisakh 3-0-7-0, Jalaj 1-0-5-0.