Under an overcast sky, Kerala captain Sanju Samson did his workforce an enormous favour by profitable the toss and gave his bowlers the possibility to take advantage of the useful situations on the KCA-St.Xavier’s College floor.
However, the Kerala medium pacers Fanoos and N.P.Basil underperformed by bowling too brief and Sanju was pressured to show to his spinners throughout the first half an hour.
Chhattisgarh opener Sanidhya Hurkat duly obliged by pulling a rank brief ball from off-spinner Vaisakh Chandran to Sanju at mid-on to set off a collapse. The moisture on the wicket supplied bounce and switch and Jalaj Saxena thrived beneath beneficial situations to choose up one other five-wicket haul (5/48) to bundle out Chhattisgarh for 149. Vaisakh Chandran (2/39) and Sachin Baby (2/2) performed their supporting forged properly.
By the time Kerala began its reply, the pitch had eased up and the openers P. Rahul and Rohan Kunnummal have been watchful and added 47 runs for the primary wicket.
Left-arm spinner Ajay Mandal trapped Rahul (24) in entrance and Rohan, although not at his fluent finest, scored 31 earlier than he was bowled by medium pacer Sourabh Majumdar.
Rohan Prem (29 batting) and Sachin Baby (11 batting) survived a testing remaining hour as Kerala reached 100 for 2 at stumps.
Earlier, greater than the wicket, it was the Chhattisgarh batters’ indecision and poor shot choice that led to their downfall. Skipper Harpreet Singh Bhatia performed positively from the beginning, punishing the unfastened balls so as to add 35 runs for the second wicket with Ajay Mandal (12).
The collapse began when Ajay Mandal was snapped up by Sachin Baby at leg slip off Jalaj. The off-spinner was on a hat-trick off the following ball as Baby caught Amandeep Khare at foolish.
As wickets fell round him, Chhattisgarh skipper Harpreet Singh Bhatia selected the attacking moments properly to compile 40 runs. Harpreet seemed assured till he performed onto a ball that bounced a little bit extra from Vaisakh Chandran.
Chhattisgarh collapsed from 55 for 2 to 104 for 9 earlier than a 45-run last-wicket stand between Mayank Yadav (29 not out) and Sourabh Majumdar (19) annoyed the host.
Scorecard
Chhattisgarh- First innings
Sanidhya Hurkat c Sanju b Vaisakh Chandran 11, Rishab Tiwari c Akshay b N.P. Basil 8, Ajay Mandal c Baby b Jalaj 12, Harpreet Singh Bhatia b Vaisakh 40, Amandeep Khare c Baby b Jalaj 0, Shashank Singh c Rahul b Jalaj 2, M.S.Hussain c Vaisakh b Jalaj 2, Mayank Yadav not out 29 ,Sumit Ruikar c Rahul b Baby 17, Ravi Kiran c Akshay b Baby 0, Sourabh Majumdar b Jalaj 19
Extras (b 7, lb 2) 9
Total (in 49.5 overs): 149
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-20, 3-55, 4-55, 5-69, 6-77, 7-79, 8-104, 9-104
Kerala bowling
Fanoos 3-1-12-0, Basil 8-0-33-1, Vaisakh 14-1-39-2, Jalaj 18.5-5-48-5, Baby 2-1-4-2, Sijomon 4-1-4-0.
Kerala-First innings
P.Rahul lbw Ajay 24, Rohan Kunnummal b Sourabh 31, Rohan Prem batting 29, Sachin Baby batting 11
Extras (b2, lb 3) 5
Total (for 2 wkts. in 38 overs): 100
Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-69
Chhattisgarh bowling
Ravi 10-3-19-0, Sourabh 7-1-22-1, Mayank 4-0-12-0, Ajay 11-0-37-1, Sumit 5-3-5-0, Sanidhya 1-1-0-0.