Plate Div: Bowlers lead Kerala fightback

Kochi: Kerala bowlers struck at regular intervals to help their team stage a fightback and reduce Services to 89/5 at stumps on the third day of their Group A Ranji Trophy Plate division match on Saturday.

Services' Sarabjit Singh (16) and S M Swain (19) were at the crease when stumps were drawn.

The visitors got off to a good start in their second essay with openers P P Desai (26) and Jasvir Singh (15) putting on 40 runs for the first wicket.

Services were 89/5 on the third day of their Group A Ranji Trophy Plate division match against Kerala.

But, Kerala medium-pacers rallied brilliantly to claim five wickets for just 17 runs, to leave Services tottering at 57 for 5.

The unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 32 between Sarabjit and Swain saved the day for Services.

For Kerala, debutant Manukrishnan (2/11) and Prashant (2/13) starred with the ball.

Earlier, resuming at 121 for 4, Kerala managed to post 249 before being bowled out.

Kerala's hope of taking the first innings lead ended when all-rounder Sony Cheruvathur, who scored a breezy 34 off 33 balls, was run out.

For Services, medium-pacer Nishan Singh finished with 4/40.

Brief scores:

Services 253 all out and 89 for 5 (P P Desai 26, Manukrishnan 11/2, Prashant 13/2) v/s Kerala 249 all out (Jagadeesh 50, S K Cheruvathur 34, Yadav 2/66, Nishan Singh 4/40, Amrinder Singh 2/55).

At Vijaywada: Andhra 235 and 271 (Venugopal Rao 96, Bodapati Sumanth 62, Rana Dutta 2 for 79), Tripura 174 and 24 for 5 (Subhrajit Roy 7, Atchuti Rao 4 for 9).

At Dharamsala: Himachal Pradesh 195 and 200, Vidarbha 142 and 257 for 7 in 77.5 overs (Hemang Badani 83 not out, Sairaj Bahutule 61, Mohinderraj Sharma 3 for 49).

Result: Vidharba won by 3 wikcets).

At Kochi: Services 253, Kerala 249 in 113.2 overs (Jagadeesh for 4 in 65.2 overs (V. A. Jagdeesh 50, Nishan Singh 4 for 40).

Group B:

At Guwahati: Assam 195, Goa 282 for 8 in 82.1 overs (Abu Nechim Ahmad 5 for 86).

At Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir: 59 for no loss (Adil Rishi 36 batting, Ian Dev Singh 19 batting) vs Jharkhand. No play on second and third day.

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