Kerala Create History, Enter First-Ever Ranji Final After 2-Run First Innings Lead

All it took for the Kerala cricket team on February 21 (Friday) was Salman Nizar at forward short leg to get hit on his helmet from a Arzan Nagwaswalla drive and the ball to rebound and get caught by Sachin Baby at first slip, to bowl Gujarat out for 455 and take a two-run first innings lead and seal their place in the final of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25. 

It was a historic event at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad for Kerala because, on the basis of that two-run first-innings lead, they are now certain to make it to the first-ever Ranji Trophy final in their state cricket history. 

However, Kerala still need to either bat out the remaining 67 overs on Day 5 of the semi-final clash or score so much that Gujarat cannot chase them down in whatever overs remain after they set them a target or get all-out.

Kerala had earlier qualified for the semi-finals after taking a one-run first-innings lead in the quarterfinal against Jammu and Kashmir.

Given that both teams batted for more than 170 overs each in their first innings, it would be hard to imagine that both of them will get a chance to bat and Gujarat will chase down a target within the remaining 67 overs. 

At the start of the fifth day, Gujarat needed to get 28 more runs to take the first-innings lead with two set batters in Jaymeet Patel and Siddharth Desai at the crease. They had put on 79 for the seventh wicket overnight. 

However, Aditya Sarwate was in no mood to let them score freely, as he removed the duo, and Gujarat needed 11 runs with the last pair at the crease. However, numbers 10 and 11 batted for 62 balls and not only frustrated Kerala but nearly stole the show, if not for the incident mentioned above, which denied them success. 

Sarwate was the hero for the team from down south as he picked all three Gujarat wickets to fall on the final day. At the time of writing this, Kerala, batting in their second innings, were 7/0 at the end of three overs.