Kerala wrap up first win of season

Kerala 483 (Samson 207, Suraj Yadav 5-94) and 10 for 1 beat Services 318 (Paliwal 157, Yashpal 72, Verma 5-92) and (f/o) 174 (Nakul 40*, Saurabh 41, Chandran 6-39) by nine wickets
Scorecard

Kerala wrapped up their first win of the season an hour into the morning of day four, beating Services by nine wickets but falling narrowly short of picking up a bonus point. Chasing 10, they lost Abhishek Hegde to the first ball of the fourth innings, caught at slip while pressing forward to defend the left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar.

That wicket was a reminder to the Services team management of their folly in picking only one spinner and bowling first after winning the toss. Kerala's spinners took 18 of their side's 20 wickets.

Late on the third evening, an unbroken 69-run stand between Nakul Verma and Saurabh Kumar had given Services a tiny bit of hope that they could set Kerala a target of 80 or 90 on a crumbling pitch. Day four had barely begun when that possibility vanished.

First ball of the morning, Saurabh looked to flick the seamer PU Anthaf and sent a low catch back to the bowler off the leading edge. Four balls later, Anthaf speared one in full and straight to catch Deepak Punia on the half-shuffle, hitting him low on the front pad in front of off stump. At this point, Services were still 42 runs short of making Kerala bat again.

Nakul and Suraj Yadav made that possible with a stand of 46 in 68 balls, before Akshay Chandran trapped Suraj lbw to pick up his sixth wicket of the innings. Rohan Prem ended Services' innings in the next over, bowling Roshan Raj with an offbreak spun between the No. 11's bat and pad.