Thiruvananthapuram: Odisha were left with a mountain to climb in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group C fixture against Kerala as they ended the second day on 114/3 in pursuit of 404.
Opener Gourav Choudhury, who scored a century in a losing cause in Odisha’s opening game against Gujarat, applied himself to score a half century before becoming one of left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate’s two victims.
Gourav and Shantanu Mishra (32) put on 60 for the opening wicket before the latter was trapped leg-before wicket by veteran offie Jalaj Saxena.
Om Munde (14) also fell leg-before wicket, to Sarwate, leaving skipper Subhranshu Senapati (16*) and Sandeep Pattnaik (2*) the task of building a big partnership.
Kerala, who were reduced to 101/5 on the first day, resumed on Monday at 245/6 and extended their first innings till midway into the second session to go past 400. They had the overnight pair of Mohammed Azharuddeen and Sarwate to thank. Wicketkeeper-batter Azharuddeen scored his third first-class hundred, remaining unbeaten on 139 and Sarwate made 53, the two adding 99 runs dor the seventh wicket.
Lalit Yadav was Odisha’s most successful bowler with three wickets.
BRIEF SCORES
Kerala first innings: 404 (Mohammed Azharuddeen 139 not out, Aditya Sarwate 53; Lalit Yadav 3/53, Soumya Lenka 2/57, Rajesh Mohanty 2/81, Ninad Rathva 2/81).
Odisha first innings: 114/3 (Gourav Choudhury 50, Shantanu Mishra 32; A Sarwate 2/27).
Match to continue on Day 3.