Bangalore: On a comeback trail after the end of his spot-fixing ban, pacer S Sreesanth picked up Monday his first five-wicket haul in List A cricket. This feat by S Sreesanth came after almost 15 years. The five-wicket haul helped Kerala pull-off a three-wicket win over Uttar Pradesh in a Group C the Vijay Hazare Trophy game here.
The 37-year-old Sreesanth was not shortlisted in IPL 2021 auction’s final list. He returned figures of five for 65 in his first List A game in more than eight years.
Sreesanth had returned to competitive cricket last month after his life ban was overturned. He opened his account by dismissing UP opener Abhishek Sharma. He then returned in the death overs to dismiss UP under 200 with wickets of skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohsin Khan, Akshdeep Nath, and Shivam Sharma en route to his only the second five-for of his List-A career.
On his List-A return, the former India pacer, who has played 27 Tests, 53 ODIs and 10 T20Is, picked up two for 41 against Odisha, Saturday.
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In reply, Kerala sealed the chase in 48.5 overs. Robin Uthappa (81, 55b, 8×4, 4×6) and Sachin Baby (76, 83b, 6×4, 1×6) gave the start before Jalaj Saxena (31) and MD Nidheesh (13 not out) sealed victory.
This was Kerala’s second successive win in Group C but they remained second in table behind Railways. The latter thrashed Odisha by eight wickets at the M Chinnaswamy here to be ahead by net run-rate.
Defending champions Karnataka bounced back with a bang after their first-match loss with a 267-run rout of Bihar.
(At M Chinnaswamy Stadium): Odisha 230 all out 49.3 overs (Ankit Yadav 48; T Pradeep 3/54) lost to Railways 231/2 in 44.3 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 81 n o, Pratham Singh 63, Arindam Ghosh 39 n o) by eight wickets.
(At KSCA Ground 2): Uttar Pradesh 283 in 49.4 overs (Akashdeep Nath 68, Priyam Garg 57, Abhishek Goswami 54; S Sreesanth 5/65) lost to Kerala 284/7 in 48.4 overs (Robin Uthappa 81, Sachin Baby 76) by three wickets.