Nair may have missed out on a well-deserved hundred, but his knock was worth its weight in gold. Nair showed no discomfort whatsoever against either pace or spin as he rebuilt the innings with Malewar after Vidarbha had slipped to 24 for the loss of three wickets.
Vidarbha, in fact lost makeshift opener Parth Rekhade (0) to the second ball of the match. Darshan Nalkande (1), also could not do justice to his promotion to No. 3 and succumbed to Nidheesh soon after. And when the experienced Dhruv Shorey was caught behind off Eden Apple Tom, Kerala captain Sachin Baby's decision to bowl first after winning the toss seemed to have paid off.
However, Malewar and Nair had other ideas and they played copybook cricket to steady the innings before dominating the proceedings in the second session. Malewar reached his second century of the season just before the tea break. His hundred came off 168 balls with 12 four and a six. He was unbeaten on 138 at close of play and Vidarbha would be counting on him to see off the second new ball which is only 4.2 overs old.
Earlier, Vidarbha made one change in their playing XI, bringing in Akshay Karnewar in place of regular opener Atharva Taide.
Brier scores
Vidarbha 1st innings 254/4 in 86 overs (Danish Malewar 138 batting, Karun Nair 86; Nidheesh 2/33)
Kerala yet to bat