Sarvate leads Kerala's fightback after Nalkande's twin blows

Sarvate, who moved from Vidarbha to Kerala earlier this season, was surprisingly underbowled by Kerala captain Sachin Baby and he failed to pick up a single wicket in the 13 overs he delivered, but he batted beautifully after being promoted to No. 3.

Like Vidarbha, Kerala too made a disastrous start, losing their first two wickets for just 14 runs as Darshan Nalkande dismissed both the openers Rohan Kunnummal (0) and Akshay Chandran (14). Sarvate and Imran steadied the ship with a fine stand before the latter was out for 37 to Yash Thakur. Sarvate carried on in the same vein and was not out on 66 off 120 balls with 10 hits to the fence. Sachin Baby (7) was keeping him company at the other end.

Earlier, Vidarbha managed to put up a competitive score in spite of losing wickets in a heap before lunch. Danish Malewar, unbeaten on 138 overnight and Yash Thakur took the score to 290 before the former succumbed for 153. Thakur followed suit five runs later after making a quick 25.

Akshay Wadkar played a cameo, making 23 runs but Yash Rathod fell cheaply for once. When Wadkar was the ninth man out at 335, Vidarbha were in danger of being bowled out before the lunch break. The umpires extended play but Vidarbha's last pair of Harsh Dubey and Nachiket Bhute were in no mood to surrender. Together they added 44 runs, of which Bhute contributed 32 off 38 balls with one boundary and two sixes.

For Kerala, pacers Nidheesh (3/61) and Edhen Apple Tom (3/102) picked up three wickets apiece.

BRIEF SCORES

Vidarbha 1st innings 379 all out in 121.1 overs (Danish Malewar 153, Karun Nair 86, Yash Thakur 25, Akshay Wadkar 23, Nachiket Bhute 32; Nidheesh 3/61, Edhen Apple Tom 3/102, Basil NP 2/60)

Kerala 1st innings 131/3 in 31 overs (Aditya Sarvate 66 batting, Ahammed Imran 37; Darshan Nalkande 2/22)

Kerala trail by 248 runs