Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh have a chance to eke out a draw with Kerala in elite Group C ranji trophy Match descends into chaos as in-form batsmen, captain Aryan Juyal and Priyam GargBack at the venue, the team was 66/2, still 167 runs behind the home team’s first innings score of 395 runs.
The left-handed batsman continued the day with an overnight score of 340/7 at the St. Xavier’s KCA Cricket Ground in Thiruvananthapuram Salman Nizar Azharuddeen (40) added a quick 48 runs before the latter was caught by Aaqib Khan’s Juyal in the 123rd over. Salman (93) fell behind by seven runs when he was caught by Siddharth near Ajib.
Pacer Aaqib Khan sealed three wickets while Shivam Maavi, Saurabh Kumarand Shivam Sharma Each took two wickets.
The UP innings started cautiously with Madhav Kaushik and Aryan Juyal scoring 24 runs for the first wicket Jalaj Saxena Dismissal Aryan for 12 runs. At stumps, Madhav and former captain Nitish Rana (5) were left at the crease. UP needed a good performance from the batsmen to force the match into a draw and secure a valuable run.
Captain Aryan Juyal told TOI: “I thought the wickets went against us on the first day because of the humidity, but then it settled down. We couldn’t bat but hopefully we Able to take the game to the goal draw.
Meanwhile, Ajib Khan said: “We wanted the game to end in a draw. The first day went against us, but then the wickets became favorable for the batting.
