Kolkata: Jalaj Saxena did what he is always good at — pulling his side out of the woods. The veteran all-rounder walked in with Kerala in trouble at 78 for five and scripted the recovery from there. Saxena never looked in trouble as he settled down well to take the attack to the rival camp. It was due to his resilient 84 (162 b, 4x12) that Kerala found themselves safe at 267 for seven by the end of Day III of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘C’ clash against Bengal at the JU Salt Lake campus here on Monday.
Bengal pacer Ishan Porel once again made early inroads dismissing both the overnight unbeaten batters — Sachin Baby and Akshay Chandran — in consecutive overs within the first hour of third day’s play, but Saxena and Salma Nizar frustrated the Bengal attack stitching together a 140-run seventh-wicket stand that took Kerala to safety.
Porel had Kerala skipper Baby clean bowled in his fifth over of the morning for 12 and then had Chandran (31) caught behind when the left-hander tried to pull a short one and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha latched onto an edge jumping on to his right.
At 83 for six, Bengal smelt blood. But Saxena had been-there-and-done-that in such situations for ages. He was a bit tentative in the initial stage and survived some close leg-before wicket calls. But once he settled down, he played a fluent knock finding the fence almost at will.
Pacer Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal finally had Saxena bowled in the final session of play. But Mohammed Azharuddeen (30*) and Nizar (64*) were involved in an unbroken 44-run eighth-wicket stand to ensure Kerala end the day on top.
Brief scores:
Kerala 267/7 in 102 ovs (Jalaj Saxena 84, Salman Nizar 64*, Mohammed Azharuddeen 30*; Ishan Porel 5/83) vs Bengal