Patna: In the Ranji Trophy match being played at the local Moinul Haq Stadium, the Bihar bowlers performed brilliantly against Kerala and prevented the visiting team from scoring big. On one hand, Bihar’s Veer Pratap Singh and Vipul Krishna wreaked havoc, while on the other hand, Himanshu Singh trapped the visiting batsmen with his spin. Amidst all this, Shreyas Gopal of Kerala kept his wicket intact, played a sensible innings and scored a century and he is still unbeaten. At the end of the first day’s play, Kerala had scored 203 runs for 9 wickets in 68 overs. Shreyas Gopal was on unbeaten 113 runs and Akhin was yet to open his account. They were at the crease.
For Bihar, Veer Pratap Singh took 3 wickets for 26 runs, Vipul Krishna took 2 wickets for 57 runs and Himanshu Singh took 4 wickets for 50 runs.
Bihar won the toss and invited Kerala to bat. Bihar bowlers proved the decision of their captain Ashutosh Aman right. In the fourth over, Vipul Krishna gave the first blow to Kerala by bowling out Rohan S Kunnumal. Rohan SK was out after scoring only 5 runs. After this Veer Pratap wreaked havoc. Veer Pratap Singh gave a double blow to Kerala in the 5th over, Sachin Baby was sent to the pavilion on the second ball of the 5th over and then Vishnu Vinod was sent to the pavilion on the last ball. At this time the team’s score was 15 runs. The team’s score had just increased by 19 runs when Anand Krishnan was trapped by Himanshu Singh in his spin and Kerala lost four wickets for 34 runs.
Akshay Chandran and Shreyas Gopal together stopped this faltering innings for some time. There was an important partnership of 50 runs between these two. Before the pair could settle down, Himanshu Singh gave the fifth blow to Kerala by getting Akshay Chandran caught by Piyush Kumar Singh. After Akshay was out, Vishnu Raj but Himanshu Singh bowled him and gave the sixth blow to Kerala. After this Jalaj Saxena supported Shreyas Gopal. An important partnership of 61 runs between them took the team’s score to 163 runs. Himanshu Singh gave the seventh blow to Kerala by dismissing Jalaj Saxena on this score. Jalaj Saxena was out after scoring 22 runs.
The team’s score had just increased by 1 run when Vasil Thampi was out as the eighth wicket for Kerala. Himanshu Singh gave the ninth blow to Kerala on the score of 176 runs in 61.6 overs by dismissing Nidesh MD but Shreyas Gopal held a wicket and completed his century.
Shreyas Gopal scored an unbeaten 113 runs in 196 balls with 17 fours and one six and Akhin remained at the wicket without opening his account. Kerala’s score at the end of play on the first day was 203 runs for nine wickets in 68 overs.
For Bihar, Veer Pratap Singh took 3 wickets for 26 runs, Vipul Krishna took 2 wickets for 57 runs and Himanshu Singh took 4 wickets for 50 runs.
