Ranji Trophy: Kerala in sight of victory over Goa

Porvorim (Goa): Kerala looked set for victory against Goa in their Ranji Trophy group C match as 15 wickets fell today with bowlers dominating the show at Academy ground here.

Resuming their overnight score of zero without loss, Kerala, who took 31 runs first innings lead, failed to dominate in the second innings as they fell to the guile of the Goan spinners and were all out for 147 in 62.5 overs. They set Goa a target of 179 to win. Goa`s batsmen fumbled again in the second innings against a disciplined bowling from the visitors and were tottering at 82 for 5 when play ended, still needing 97 to win with five wickets in hand on the final day tomorrow. Keenan Vaz (33), who is putting a lone battle to avoid defeat, is batting well along with Ravikant Shukla (04) to remain not out batsman. Medium pacer B Magaldas sent back overnight batsman N Surendran (0) and V A Jagdeesh (11) cheaply to have Kerala under pressure with the score at 12. Shadab Jakati, who took advantage of the turning wicket along with Amit Yadav, then dismissed R M Fernandes (12) when he had him plumbed infront of the wicket with the score at 36. Sachin Baby (0), T M Ansal (8) and P R Prem (13) all fell in quick succession without adding to Kerala score of 36. V Manoharan (40) and P Prasant (46) put on useful 83 runs for the seventh wicket to take the score past 100 before they fell in quick succession with the score at 138. Shadab, who spun the ball well along with Amit Yadav, dismissed the last batsman N Niyas (4) to have Kerala all out for 147, finished with four wickets. Amit Yadav claimed three wickets and B Mangaldas took two. For the visitors, P Parameswaran dealt the early blow when he had opener A S Desai (10) and Sagun Kamat (1) with the score at 26. V A Jagdeesh than dismissed Swapnil Asnodkar (21) and Darshan Misal (0) to grab two wickets. Vinoop S M was the other successful bowler who took the wicket of Rohit Asnodkar (18).