Patna: Sakibul Gani's unbeaten 120 helped Bihar gain the first innings lead on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match against Kerala here on Saturday. The home side finished on 270/5 in reply to Kerala's first innings total of 227.
Debutant medium-pacer Akhin Sathar dismissed Bihar opener Sraman Nigrodh for a duck in his very first over. The youngster followed it up with the wicket of Babul Kumar (16) to leave the hosts struggling at 29/2 before Gani took centrestage.
Gani and opener Piyush Kumar Singh added 109 for the third wicket. Piyush was dismissed by Shreyas Gopal for 51.
Gani and wicketkeepr-batter Bipin Saurabh (60) put on 110 for the fifth wicket to hand Bihar the lead.
Earlier, Gopal smashed 137 as Kerala ended up with a fighting 227. Resuming on 203/9, Gopal scored all the 24 runs Kerala managed in 6.3 overs on the day. The right-hander hit 21 fours and a six in his 229-ball knock.
Gopal added 51 runs for the last wicket in the company of Akhin, who played out 17 balls without scoring a run.
Brief scores: Kerala 227 in 74.3 overs (Shreyas Gopal 137; Himanshu Singh 4/63, Veer Pratap Singh 3/26) vs Bihar 270/5 in 73 overs (Sakibul Gani 120 batting, Bipin Saurabh 60, Piyush Kumar Singh 51; Akhin Sathar 2/40, Shreyas Gopal 2/66).
