SEIZING A two-run lead at the halfway stage of the final day’s play and surviving a few tense moments in the second innings as the light faded, Sachin Baby’s Class of 2025 became the first Kerala cricket team in 74 years to make it to the Ranji Trophy final. While home team Gujarat stretched the contest into the final session on Friday, the moment of the game unfolded at 11 am when the last Gujarat wicket fell.
Chasing 457 to make it to the title clash, Gujarat were 455/9. Even levelling the score was enough for Gujarat as they had been better placed on the league table. Spinner Aditya Sarvate who, with his two wickets, had spread panic after Gujarat started the day at 429/7, had the ball in hand. Just a stroke away from the target, Gujarat No.10 Arzan Nagwaswalla swung his bat but couldn’t clear gritty silly-point fielder Salman Nizar. The forceful slog-sweep rebounded off Thalassery brickwall Nizar thala to captain Baby’s palms at slip.
Nizar’s epoch-making helmet will be framed for posterity when the team returns home, the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) declared. For now, a ticket to Nagpur awaits, 74 years since the maidans of Thalassery and Tripunithura forged the cricketing dreams of India’s southwest coast, even before the ‘Kerala’ concept was conceived in 1956.
As his teammates celebrated, Nizar was stretchered out to a hospital after copping a blow on the KCA emblem. Against Jammu and Kashmir in the quarter-final at Pune last week, he partnered M D Nidheesh to secure that crucial one-run lead.
Of late, Nizar and Kerala have got used to witnessing miracles. At the Narendra Modi Stadium, they never thought they were out of the game.
Kerala coach Amay Khurasiya, a former India international from Madhya Pradesh, had a chat with his two professional spin giants, Jalaj Saxena and Aditya Sarvate. They were charting a course to defend the 28-run lead by plotting three moments. Fitness trainer Vysakh Krishna said he struggled to endure the closing moments, but was reminded of the ‘Khurasiya’ effect that blanketed the boys on the field under mind-crunching pressure throughout the season.
“He had curiously written down the number ‘2’ on his wrist last evening and kept repeating today that we would either take the lead by six or two runs. Even before the final delivery, he was calm,” Krishna said.
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And Saxena (4/149) and Sarvate’s (4/111) did propel their adopted state into the history books.
Trainer Vysakh would, however, point to the cohesive mentality shift under Khurasiya’s guard, an eye-opener for him in his five years with the team. “We were a team that used to hold parties and celebrate reaching the quarters in white-ball tournaments.”
1⃣ wicket in hand
2⃣ runs to equal scores
3⃣ runs to secure a crucial First-Innings LeadJoy. Despair. Emotions. Absolute Drama! 😮
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/kisimA9o9w#RanjiTrophy | @IDFCFIRSTBank | #GUJvKER | #SF1 pic.twitter.com/LgTkVfRH7q
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) February 21, 2025
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Despite blunting Kerala’s spin advances Thursday evening with an admirable combination of defence and running between the wickets, Gujarat batsmen Jaymeet Patel and Siddharth Desai were ready to play the waiting game. Baby would reveal he’d thought the final was “gone” when he dropped Patel on the final morning.
But moments later, Patel lunged a touch forward, only to leave a track for wicketkeeper Mohammed Azharuddeen to pursue. With nimble collection, he affected a stumping with the batsman’s backfoot on the line of the crease. An animated Kerala dugout soon emerged on the sidelines with hope reposed and a struggling Sarvate regaining his lost composure. He would also account for Desai.
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Battling a finger fracture, Gujarat No.11 Priyajitsinh Jadeja walked out and ticked off 30 deliveries to send Kerala hearts pounding. But when the typical tail-end wantonness kicked into Nagwaswalla’s muscles, Nizar’s sturdy cranium would make a desperate late reflex as Kerala swung the see-sawing contest dramatically their way.
For cricket-mad Kerala research students, Adwaith and Vaishnav, who had travelled from Gandhinagar and tussled with the security guards for entry for the last day at an empty 1.3 lakh-seater venue, the six-hour humdinger was all about “nimitham”. Destiny and overwhelming serendipity.
