KSCA Trophy: Batting lets Kerala down again, lose to Gujarat by 70 runs

KOCHI: Undoing all the great work they had done to get back into the match, Kerala's batting crumbled when it mattered the most as they lost by 70 runs against Gujarat in the Thimmappiah Memorial KSCA tournament at Mysore on Monday. Chasing 229 to win, Kerala were bowled out for 168 on the fourth and final day. Kerala were entertaining hopes of a win after crawling back into the game with some superb bowling on the third day but the batsmen let the team down as they succumbed to Gujarat spinners Rujul Bhatt and Ashav Panchal who took five and three wickets respectively.
Openers Rohan Kunnummal (26) and Vishnu Vinod put on 64 for the first wicket but after Vishnu went for 42, Kerala lost wickets at regular intervals.Captain Sachin Baby and century hero from first innings Mohammed Azharuddeen did not trouble the scorers. Only Jalaj Saxena (47) put something meaningful on the board from the middle order but long before he was out as the last man, Kerala’s fate was sealed.
Kerala had earlier drawn their first match against Punjab but had got three points thanks to first-innings lead. In the other match in the group, Punjab romped past Mumbai by a thumping margin of 296 runs with Gurkeeret Mann returning a seven-wicket match haul. Punjab and Gujarat have seven points each from two matches while Mumbai and Kerala have three points each from as many matches.
Brief scores: Gujarat 311 (Manprit Juneja 66, Chintan Gaja 62, Chirag Gandhi 51; MD Nidheesh 5/45, Sandeep Warrier 2/77, Akshay Chandran 2/83) & 211 (Chirag Gandhi 40, Chitan Gaja 34; Sandeep Warrier 4/59, Nidheesh MD 3/43) bt Kerala 284 (Mohammed Azharuddeen 141, Rohan Kunnummal 32; Chintan Gaja 4/52, Ashav Panchal 4/55) & 168 (Jajaj Saxena 47, Vishnu Vinod 42; Rujul Bhatt 5/59, Ashav Panchal 3/51, Naman Patel 2/9) by 70 runs.