Ranji Trophy | Vishnu Vinod’s flamboyant knock keeps Kerala in the contest

Vishnu Vinod's flamboyant 74 helps Kerala stay in contest against Uttar Pradesh in Ranji Trophy.

Vishnu Vinod made a comeback to First Class cricket with his trademark flamboyant knock (74) that helped Kerala stay in the contest against Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy cricket match at the SD College ground here on Saturday.

The host, after restricting Uttar Pradesh to 302 in the first innings, ended the day at 220 for six with Shreyas Gopal (36 batting) and Jalaj Saxena (6 batting) surviving a tricky final session.

But Kerala owes it to Vishnu Vinod, who was playing his first Ranji match after two years, for preventing Uttar Pradesh from dominating the contest. The start was ominous for the host with debutant Krishna Prasad falling for a golden duck. Vishnu walked in when Kerala was tottering at 32 for three. Kuldeep Yadav was tormenting Kerala batters and had just breached Rohan Prem’s defence with a delivery which whizzed past the defensive prod to castle him.

Vishnu tempered his aggression initially but soon went into attack mode against the spinners. He hit Saurabh Kumar out of the attack and didn’t spare Kuldeep either. Vishnu hit Saurabh for three sixes and four in an over to race to his fifty. Sachin Baby (38) proved to be an ideal foil as he added 99 runs with Vishnu for the fourth wicket to resurrect the innings. Vishnu, who was suffering from cramps, tried a cheeky reverse sweep against Kuldeep and perished.

Sanju Samson made a late entry and began in style, clobbering the first ball he faced from Kuldeep for a straight six. He batted fluently to reach 35 but fell to a fine leg side catch at the fag end of the last session to give Uttar Pradesh a big boost.

Earlier in the day, Kerala medium pacers M.D. Nidheesh and Basil Thampi picked up wickets regularly to restrict the visitors. A double strike by Nidheesh hastened the Uttar Pradesh innings.

Rinku Singh’s desperation to reach the hundred saw him edge a wide delivery to slips and Yash Dayal fell for a golden duck to another catch in the slips. Kuldeep (5) then hit a full toss from Jalaj to midwicket as the visitors were bowled out for 302.