Ranji Trophy 2019 | Umesh Yadav runs through Kerala’s lineup as Shreyas Gopal’s crucial knock gives Karnataka edge

Saurashtra vs Karnataka

Though Sharath remains unbeaten at the end of the day, he has Ronit More at the other end waiting to crumble under the simplest of pressure. Apart from Unadkat, Kamlesh Makvana also starred for Saurashtra as he scalped the wickets of Gopal, Gowtham, and Abhimanyu Mithun, preventing Karnataka a strong recovery. Chetan Sakariya and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja also pitched in crucial contributions with one wicket apiece but both kept their economy rate below three to suffocate out Karnataka batsmen. Karnataka ended their day with a 264 run lead with nine wickets gone as they would look to prevent Saurashtra from a big lead on Day 2. 

Brief Scores:Kerala 106/10 (Vishnu Vinod 37, Sachin Baby 22; Umesh Yadav 7/48, Rajneesh Gurbani 3/38) trail Vidarbha 171/5 (Faiz Faizal 75, Wasim Jaffer 34; Sandeep Warrier 2/46, MD Nidheesh 2/53) by 65 runs.

Kerala had one of the most horrible opening days in their history of the tournament as they were bundled out by Umesh Yadav for a meagre 106 runs. After slow starts from Ponnam Rahul and Mohammed Azharuddeen, the pressure really got to them as Azharuddeen returned to the pavilion in as early as the fourth over. After Sijimon Joseph went for a duck, Ponnam followed suit reducing the side to 27/3 in the ninth over. Though Sachin Baby looked to be in good touch for some time, the relentless collapse of Vinoop Manoharan and Arun Karthik saw Baby eventually giving in for 22 runs, which included four boundaries. It was a matter of time from there as the rest of the team collapsed in the next 11 overs adding another  60 runs. And had it not been for a persistent Vishnu Vinod (37) in the lower order, the figures would have been more dismal.