Vidarbha 379 and 249 for 4 (Nair 132*, Malewar 73) KERALA 342 (Baby 98, Sarwate 79, Nalkande 3-52, Rekhade 3-65, Dubey 3-88) for 286 races
Two seasons, Nair is at the forefront of the Vidarbha load to a third title of Ranji Trophy, after having hit all day to build an undefeated 132, its 23rd century of the first class and fourth century first class of the season. He helped stretch the advantage of Vidarbha at 286 in Stumps, but crucially still have six remaining Wickts. If Nair raises the trophy, it will be his third: his first two were with Karnataka in his first two seasons, 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Malewar and Nair got 182 for the third Wickt, Malewar doing 73 to go with their excellent 153 in the first tickets, to deactivate any tension there could have been in the Vidarbha camp after they lost Parth Rekhade and Dhruv Shorey within the first three overs. Rekhade was beaten by the door for the drift of Jalaj Saxena, and Shorey was brilliant from Mohammed Azharuddeen when he dove into complete stretching to start a healthy edge in front of the first slip to give MD Nidheesh an early wickt.
Kerala could have had a very fast third, but Malewar was helped by fate when the Drs considered a decision of LBW without leaving Saxena to be the call of Ubpire. It was the beginning of a few frustrating hours for Kerala, where they dropped a babysitter of a great combination player, two of his frontline sailors, Nidheesh and N Basil, received warnings twice for running to the danger area of the lid and then saw two notches of Saxen Do not attack, not attack. All these combined factors to give Vidarbha the thrust they needed.
In the seventh during the day, Malewar survived again, this time annuling a call from LBW to the Drs after being delivered to Nidheesh, with repetitions that show the ball at the end of the leg and the leg bump would have been lost. Things happened quickly, and Kerala should have remained on the offensive. They did not do it and paid the price.
Nair was good enough to collect the holes through the roof when Kerala left the side of the time open to drive against the turn. His ability to mix it by playing an excellent reverse sweep along the ground made him a difficult perspective to play. Malewar’s temperament stood out when he absorbed Saxena’s pressure and played largely within himself until he reached half a century and then left to play a glorious trip in the middle of half.
As the association grew, Kerala briefly fell to a leg stump line to try to harm the batters. But since Vidarbha was sitting with an advantage, Kerala realized that they needed to be a little more on the offensive, at which time the couple had already made 100 races.
Nair survived in 65 when an an attack of attack outside Saxena did not take the bowling player, and responded by compensating any pressure playing the reverse sweep. Along the way, he exceeded the 800 racing mark for the season and was loaded in the 80s when he hit Aditya Sarwate for two six consecutive ones: one for a long time and long. When he raised his century, Nair dropped his bat, he took off his gloves and showed nine fingers to the locker room to point to his nine hundred throughout the season before taking guard and continuing in halves.
Then, a sharp tuner from Sarwate again caught him LBW, a decision that Kerala was overturned in his favor through the dres. But moments like those were far and few in a large extent frustrating for Kerala, whose hopes of a single title seem almost missing, and needed a miracle to make a match of this on the last day.
Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent in Espncricinfo
