S. Sreesanth made his comeback in competitive cricket in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy as Kerala beat Puducherry in a Group E match by six wickets. The Kerala pacer took the wicket of Fabid Ahmed as he marked his return after seven years.
After winning the toss, Puducherry elected to bat and put up a respectable score of 138 for six in 20 overs. Ashith Rajiv top scored for Puducherry with 33, which included three sixes. The 27-year-old also took three wickets.
Paras Dogra, who came as a guest from Himachal Pradesh, scored 26 runs off 24 balls that included four fours.
Jalaj Saxena starred for Kerala, taking three wickets to restrict Puducherry to 138. Saxena took the wickets of Dogra, Marimuthu Vikneshwaran and Sagar Trivedi. He gave away just 13 runs in the four overs allotted to him.
Sreesanth took the first wicket of the second innings, getting Puducherry opener Ahmed out, but gave away 29 runs in four overs.
Kerala’s captain Sanju Samson and Mohammad Azharuddeen led Kerala’s battle, reaching the target in 18.2 overs with four wickets remaining. Samson top scored with 32 off 26 balls that included three fours and two sixes.
Robin Uthappa (21 off 12 balls with three fours) and Salman Nisar (20 off 18 balls with a six and a four) were the other notable contributors for Kerala.