Opener V A Jagadeesh hammered a brilliant 121 off 137 balls as Kerala thrashed Railways by 60 runs in their Vizay Hazare Trophy one-day cricket match here today.
Put into bat, Kerala piled up 256 for 8 in their allotted 50 overs and then shot Railways, who had beaten defending champions Karnataka yesterday, out for 196 runs in 43.1 overs to not up their first win in the tournament.
Kerala had lost their first match against Haryana by nine runs.
Jagadeesh's knock was studded with seven boundaries and three sixes before he was scalped by K K Upadhyay. Sanju Samson (35), Rohan Prem (34) and left-hander Sachin Baby (34) were other notable contributors for Kerala at the Alur Cricket Stadium-II.
Anureet Singh was highest wicket-taker for Railways, picking up four wickets for 40 runs in his 10 overs. Upadhyay bagged two wickets and Ashish Yadav and Arnab Nandi took one each.
Chasing 257 for a win, Railways began badly, losing three wickets fr 37 runs, but Saurabh Wakaskar (77) and Arindam Ghosh (53) stitched a 113-run partnership for the fourth wicket, which sent jitters down the spine of Kerala.
However, Kerala bowlers came back strongly and picked up the remaining six wickets by conceding just 46 runs. Sandeep Warrier, Fabid Ahmed, Prashanth Padmanabhan and Rohan Prem, scalped two wickets each. Manu Krishnan had to be satisfied with one wicket.
Kerala secured four points from the win while Railways got none.
Brief Scores:
Kerala: 256/8 in 50 overs (V A Jagadeesh 121; Anureet Singh 4/40)
Railways: 196 all out in 43.1 overs (Saurabh Wakaskar 77, Arindam Ghosh 53; Sandeep Warrier 2/32).
