The match between Kerala and Maharashtra ended in a drawImage Credit source: Screenshot/Hotstar
The biggest tournament of Indian domestic cricket, Ranji Trophy, has started and as always, there is some drama being seen from the first round of matches. While Jharkhand defeated the very strong and many-time champion Tamil Nadu by an innings margin, Assam forced Gujarat to a draw. One such dramatic result was seen in the match between Maharashtra and Kerala, where one team had lost 5 wickets for just 18 runs, but even then it did not face defeat and the match was drawn.
This match between Kerala and Maharashtra played in Thiruvananthapuram ended in a draw on the last day. Maharashtra, which batted first in this match, batted on the last day also and scored 224 runs after losing 2 wickets in the second innings, when both the teams agreed to a draw. In the second innings, opener Prithvi Shaw played an excellent innings and scored a half-century. Shaw, who failed in the first innings, scored 75 runs this time. Similarly, Rituraj Gaikwad scored a half-century in the second innings as well and remained unbeaten on 55 runs. Siddhesh Veer also returned unbeaten on 55 runs.
For Maharashtra, the draw of this match proved to be like a victory because seeing the fate of this team in the first innings, it seemed difficult to reach this result. On the first day of the match, Maharashtra team started batting and within just an hour half of its team had returned to the pavilion. From Shaw to captain Ankit Bawne, the experienced batsmen had returned to the pavilion and the team had lost 5 wickets for just 18 runs. The most surprising thing was that 4 out of these 5 batsmen could not even open their account.
But despite this, Maharashtra got this match drawn and its stars were Rituraj Gaikwad and experienced all-rounder Jalaj Saxena. Gaikwad scored 91 runs in the first innings and made a partnership of 122 runs with Saxena. Jalaj Saxena scored 49 runs during this period. It is also a strange coincidence that till last season, Jalaj Saxena was a part of Kerala only. After this, he did wonders with his bowling and took 3 wickets against his old team and reduced them to just 219 runs. In this way, Maharashtra got a lead of 20 runs in the first innings and on the basis of this lead, despite the match being drawn, Maharashtra got 3 points while Kerala got only 1 point.
