Kerala let their advance slip on the second day of the Ranji Trophy against Madhya Pradesh in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. After conceding a narrow lead in the first innings, Madhya Pradesh made 140/2, leading by 133 runs, at stumps. Rajat Patidar (50) and captain Shubham Sharma (46) were in the middle.

Earlier, resuming at 54 for no loss, Kerala had a batting collapse as they were left reeling at 55/3 and 62/4 with Aryan Pandey and India player Avesh Khan striking in quick succession.

A modest but handy 78-run stand between Salman Nizar (36) and Mohammed Azharuddeen (34) rescued Kerala. However, the hosts could not steady another partnership and were bundled out for 167, taking a lead of 7 runs.

Kerala led by Sachin Baby are unbeaten in the Ranji Trophy this season with two wins and three draws. Sanju Samson, who recently had a fallout with the state association, is not part of the squad as he is with India's T20I squad taking on England.

Kerala had missed Sanju and Sachin, the latter due to an injury, in the recently held Vijay Hazare Trophy. The state side had a poor outing, winning just two of their five matches in the 50-over event.

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 160 & 140/2 in 41 overs (Rajat Patidar 50 not out, Shubham Sharma 46 not out, Himanshu Mantri 31) vs Kerala 167/9 in 56.2 overs (Salman Nizar 36, Mohammed Azharuddeen 34, Aryan Pandey 3/31, Avesh Khan 3/43, Saransh Jain 2/11) Stumps day 2

TAGS

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.