Malayali pacer Aadithya Baiju produced the best bowling figures, of the ongoing Vinoo Mankad Trophy U-19 tournament, in Kerala's defeat to Uttarakhand in Hyderabad on Thursday.
The native of Kumarakom in Kottayam district, who grew up in Dubai, bagged 7/67 from his 10 overs. Despite Aadithya's efforts that restricted Uttarakhand to 297/8 Kerala lost heavily, by 131 runs.
Samarath Semwal (113) and Lakshya Raichandani (109) impressed in Uttarakhand's innings. In reply, Kerala began firmly with Karthik P and captain Akshay S S adding 93 for the first wicket. Karthik made 56 and Akshay added 36. But the Kerala innings collapsed thereafter and folded for 166.
Aadithya is fourth among the leading wicket-takers in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy with 12 from four matches, only two behind Naman Devendra Pushpak of Mumbai. His father, Baiju, was a disrict-level cricketer. Aadithya, a right-arm pacer, had a training stint at the MRF Pace Foundation.
Brief scores: Uttarakhand 297/8 in 50 overs (Samarath Semwal 113, Lakshya Raichandani 109, Uzair 38, Aadithya Baiju 7/67) bt Kerala 166 in 40.1 overs (Karthik P 56, Akshay SS 36, Althaf S 20, Aadithya Baiju 16)