Ranji Trophy Group B: Saxena's ton put Kerala on top; bad light stops Tamil Nadu vs Andhra match

Opener Jalaj Saxena held the Kerala innings together en route to his 14th first class century

Bengal vs Kerala

Opener Jalaj Saxena held the Kerala innings together en route to his 14th first class century to put his side on top against Bengal in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.

Saxena stood tall in a glittering 143 from 190 balls (21x4s, 2x6s) as Kerala surpassed Bengal's first innings score of 147 in the opening session before notching up a sizeable 291 in 83 overs.

The 31-year-old counter-attacked Mohammed Shami with both his sixes coming against the Australia-bound India pacer.

Brief Scores:
Bengal: 147 and 5/1 in 2.2 overs (Abhishek Raman 0 batting; Sandeep Warrier 1/0).
Kerala: 291 in 83 overs (Jalaj Saxena 143, V A Jagadeesh 39, Akshay Chandran 32 not out; Ishan Porel 4/69, Mohammed Shami 3/100, Ashok Dinda 2/41).

Andhra vs Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu made122 for 3 in 50 overs at stumps on the second day after bowling out Andhra for 216 in the first innings of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match.

Only 140 runs were scored from around 60 overs of play possible before bad light ended proceedings on the day.

Brief scores: Andhra 216 all out in 89.5 overs (Girinath Reddy 86 not out, Jyothisaikrishna 58, M Mohammed 4 for 70, T Natarajan 3 for 36, Sai Kishore 3 for 29) vs Tamil Nadu 122 for 3 in 50 overs (M Kaushik Gandhi 38).

BRIEF SCORES:

Punjab vs Madhya Pradesh: Day 2 - Madhya Pradesh 1st innings 184/2 (RM Patidar 63*, NV Ojha 46*, 76 ov)

Hyderabad vs Delhi: Day 2 - Delhi 1st innings 21/0 (S Ranjan 6*, H Dalal 14*, 7 ov)