Kerala may be down, but not out

Jan 03, 2012 |

Kochi

Tags:

cricket

Though placed third in the Elite Group B Cooch Behar Under-19 Tournament, Kerala has a lot of expectations from their players.

The cricket team, playing first time in the Elite Group has put up a strong fight in the tournament, playing four away matches, winning one match, drawing two and losing one.

In the two drawn matches, against Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh, the Kerala batsmen, smashed a double century, two half centuries and two tons. However, Kerala were not able to take the first innings lead and had to share points in the match.

Kerala’s start in the tournament was not any better as they tasted defeat in the game against Mumbai. Mumbai won the first match by an innings and 113 runs. The Kerala bowlers shone in the match with Midhun and Saly Viswanath scalping three wickets each.

In the second match against Delhi, it was a ‘new’ Kerala team — they were able to register their first win by 236 runs. All rounder Akshay Chandran scored a half century in the first innings while it was Saly Viswanath who helped Kerala win. Sanju scored 83 runs and S. Nikhilesh scored a century in the second innings of the game to set Delhi with a target of 397. Saly scalped five wickets as Delhi was all out for 166 runs.

The third match against Madhya Pradesh saw resurgence from out-of-form Sanju Viswanath, Saly’s brother, who scored a double century (218) in the first innings against Madhya Pradesh.

Akshay Chandran gave him solid support by his well crafted century (114 not out). R.S. Renjith scored a half century in the match and Saly Viswanath again showcased his brilliance by taking another five-wicket haul. However, points were shared in the match and Kerala’s efforts were in vain.

“It was a major disappointment that we were not able to get the first innings lead. If we had got two more wickets then we could have easily taken the first innings lead and won three points. This would have placed us in the second spot in the table,” said Saly Viswanath, in a post match interview.

Bad luck came in the form of rain in the last match of the team as Kerala were cruising on a comfortable first innings score of 316 /5.

The last day of the match was washed out and Kerala had to share points with Jharkhand and be satisfied with third place. S. Nikhilesh scored an unbeaten century in the match while Sanju scored 88 not out.

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