Murali Kartik and Sanjay Bangar captured two wickets apeice as Railways shackled Kerala’s progress on the first day of the Plate Division semifinal at Nagpur here on Tuesday.
Skipper Bangar elected to field after winning the toss, and his bowlers responded to the call in a fine fashion, maintaining a tight line and length while restricting Kerala to 207 for six in 91 overs.
Mediumpacer Santosh Saxena inflicted the first blow when he removed Raiphy Vincent Gomez. Kerala recovered through the 61-run second wicket alliance between Antony Sebastian and Sony Cheruvathoor. Sebastian made 52.
Brief scores: At Nagpur: Kerala: 207/6 in 91 overs (MA Sebastian 52, SK Cheruvathur 26, SR Nair 44, PR Prem 28; SB Bangar 2-28, M Kartik 2-31) vs Railways
At Delhi: Gujarat: 192 all out in 77.4 overs (TK Patel 71 n.o., SP Pandey 3-56, Anand Rajan 2-54, Sunil M Dholpure 3-28, JS Saxena 2-19) vs MP: 3/1 in 5.1 overs.