Kerala vs Maharashtra Ranji Trophy: How Kerala Let Three Points Slip After 18/5

In the Kerala vs Maharashtra Ranji Trophy 2025-26 opener, Kerala had one hand on victory after reducing Maharashtra to 18 for 5 inside 11 overs on the opening morning — but four days later, they walked away from Greenfield International Stadium wondering how three points had slipped through their fingers. A 122-run sixth-wicket stand between Ruturaj Gaikwad and Jalaj Saxena, followed by a disciplined final-day hold, handed Maharashtra the first-innings lead and turned a one-sided morning into a damaging missed opportunity for the hosts.

What Actually Happened

Maharashtra escaped from 18/5 to post 239 all out, then batted out the final day at 224/2 declared, securing the first-innings lead to claim three points from a draw against Kerala, who had to settle for one. The result, sealed on October 18, 2025, at Thiruvananthapuram, would go on to matter more than it looked at the time: Kerala finished the group stage in fifth place with 14 points, while Maharashtra ended fourth on 24 — both eliminated, with Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka going through to the knockouts instead.

Kerala vs Maharashtra Ranji Trophy 2025-26: Quick Snapshot

Kerala’s inability to close out a five-wicket morning advantage set the tone for a season where turning dominant positions into results became their recurring problem. Under new captain Mohammed Azharuddeen, Kerala’s new-ball pair struck early and often, yet had no second wave of attack once the ball softened — a pattern that would resurface across their campaign.

Day-by-Day Match Progression

Kerala dominated session one, Maharashtra owned every session after that — a complete reversal that explains the entire result. The table below tracks how the match moved through all four days at Greenfield International Stadium.

Kerala’s New-Ball Blitz and Why It Fizzled

Kerala’s seamers reduced Maharashtra to 0/3, then 5/4, then 18/5 inside the first 11 overs, but the damage stopped almost as suddenly as it started. Prithvi Shaw, Siddhesh Veer, and Arshin Kulkarni all fell without scoring in the opening two overs, and Ankit Bawne followed at 5 for 4, leaving Maharashtra’s innings in ruins before the pitch had settled.

The Missing Second Wave

MD Nidheesh took the new ball and finished with a career-defining 5 for 49, but Kerala’s support attack could not sustain the pressure once conditions eased through the middle overs. Ankit Sharma bowled 22 overs for a single wicket, and NP Basil went for over three runs an over across his 18 — both figures showing where the pressure leaked away.

Why the Pitch Turned Against Kerala

The Greenfield surface, lively enough to seam early, flattened out noticeably by the second hour of play. Once Gaikwad and Saxena settled in, the same deliveries that had troubled the top order began arriving without lateral movement, and Kerala had no spinner capable of extracting turn to compensate.

This is a recurring theme in October Ranji Trophy fixtures across the southern circuit: pitches offer generous seam movement in the first hour under cloud cover, then dry out and slow down considerably once the sun is out. Bowling attacks built around one dominant seamer, as Kerala’s was around Nidheesh, tend to lose their cutting edge exactly when a recovering batting side needs the ball to stop misbehaving.

Humidity levels at Greenfield International Stadium typically drop through the late morning session in October, drying the surface and reducing the carry that troubled Maharashtra’s top order early on. Teams touring Kerala for Ranji Trophy fixtures at this venue have long noted this shift, and it remained the deciding factor in how quickly the contest swung away from the hosts.

Azharuddeen’s decision to keep attacking with pace rather than introducing Baba Aparajith’s off-spin earlier compounded the problem. By the time spin was tried in the afternoon session, Gaikwad and Saxena were already past fifty runs into their stand and had completely nullified the urgency Kerala had built in the first hour.

The Gaikwad-Saxena Stand That Rewrote the Match

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Jalaj Saxena added 122 runs for the sixth wicket, the single act that turned Maharashtra’s innings from a collapse into a competitive total. Gaikwad, returning from a five-month injury layoff, batted with the calculated patience of a player rebuilding form rather than chasing a score, while Saxena treated the contest as a personal statement against the side he had represented for nearly a decade.

A Homecoming With an Edge

Saxena’s arrival at the crease carried extra weight: the 38-year-old all-rounder had left Kerala for Maharashtra in the off-season after being one of the state’s most dependable all-format contributors. His 49 off 106 balls, ended only when Nidheesh trapped him leg-before, was built on watchfulness rather than aggression — exactly the tempo Maharashtra needed after the top-order carnage.

Gaikwad’s contribution was the bigger one statistically. His 91 off 151 balls, laced with 11 boundaries, carried Maharashtra from crisis to 179/7 by the close of a rain-shortened opening day, before he eventually fell for 91 attempting to push the score past 250.

Bad Light and Rain: How Much Did the Weather Help Maharashtra?

Bad light forced early stumps on day one with Maharashtra still repairing the damage at 179/7, denying Kerala the extra overs they needed to finish the innings that evening. Every delay effectively handed Maharashtra’s recovering batters more time to reset overnight rather than face tired bowlers pushing for a sixth or seventh wicket in fading conditions — a small but real momentum shift in the tourists’ favour.

Kerala’s Reply: Promise Without Payoff

Sanju Samson, playing his first match back for Kerala after a season on the sidelines, top-scored with 54 as Kerala were bowled out for 219 — 20 runs short of Maharashtra’s first innings — handing the tourists the lead that decided the contest. Kerala’s middle order kept losing partners just as starts were being built, a pattern that would define their whole innings.

Three Moments That Cost Kerala the Lead

• The top-order stumble: Kerala slipped to 35 for 3 inside 11 overs of their own reply, with Baba Aparajith and Rohan Kunnummal both gone inside three balls of each other off Mukesh Choudhary and Jalaj Saxena.
• Samson’s response, but no follow-through: Samson’s 54 off 63 balls, including a six over midwicket off Saxena, briefly threatened to swing the innings, but Kerala lost three wickets for 58 runs immediately after his dismissal.
• The tail folding cheaply: Kerala’s last five wickets fell for 79 runs, undoing the platform Sachin Baby (playing his 100th Ranji Trophy match) and Salman Nizar had tried to build through the middle overs.

Salman Nizar’s Overlooked 49

Nizar’s 49 off 93 balls kept Kerala in touching distance of parity, but his dismissal — caught by Saxena off Mukesh Choudhary — triggered the final collapse that left Kerala 20 runs adrift and, with it, first-innings lead gone.

Bowling Figures From Both Innings

MD Nidheesh’s 5 for 49 was the standout bowling performance of the match, but no other bowler on either side managed more than three wickets in an innings — a sign of how quickly both attacks lost potency once partnerships formed. Full figures from Maharashtra’s first innings and Kerala’s only innings are below.

Why the First-Innings Lead Decided Everything

Under Ranji Trophy’s points system, a team that secures the first-innings lead in a drawn match earns three points, while the team that concedes it takes only one — turning Maharashtra’s 20-run cushion (239 to 219) into a full points swing rather than a marginal statistic. That single rule made the morning session on day one, not the eventual declaration, the real turning point of the match.

Could Kerala Have Set the Game Up Differently?

Kerala’s decision to field first after winning the toss was vindicated by the 18/5 start, but their inability to bowl Maharashtra out inside 84 overs — despite the early inroads — meant they never controlled the tempo of their own reply. A side that starts that strongly with the ball but still concedes a first-innings lead typically loses the game in the middle overs, not the opening burst, and this match followed that exact script.

Maharashtra’s innings stretched across 84.1 overs, more than 23 overs longer than Kerala’s own reply of 63.2 overs. That gap in overs faced meant Kerala’s bowlers were in the field for nearly a full extra session compared to what they would have needed with sharper execution, leaving less time and fresher legs for their own batting effort once the roles reversed.

How the Points Table Rewarded Maharashtra’s Patience

Ranji Trophy’s bonus-point structure rewards exactly the kind of recovery Maharashtra staged: a team that loses early wickets but grinds its way past the opposition’s total, even without pushing for an outright win, walks away with three times the points of the side that dominated the first session. This incentive structure is precisely why Test-style patience, not just aggressive intent, remains the currency that wins domestic cricket titles in India.

Final Day: Maharashtra’s Composure Closes the Door

Resuming their second innings at 71 without loss, Maharashtra extended their advantage through an unbroken stand and batted out the final session, with Prithvi Shaw’s fluent 75 setting up a declaration at 224 for 2. Siddhesh Veer’s patient 55 not out and Gaikwad’s second fifty of the match, an unbeaten 55, added an unbroken 103-run stand that removed any lingering possibility of a Kerala win.

The Dropped Chance That Summed Up Kerala’s Day

Samson dropped a sharp slip catch off Arshin Kulkarni during the final session, a moment that captured Kerala’s inability to force the finish they needed after starting the match in complete control. With both sides accepting a draw was the only realistic outcome, the captains shook hands with Maharashtra’s first-innings lead standing as the only meaningful result of the four days.

Match Summary at a Glance

Maharashtra’s 239 to Kerala’s 219 in the first innings settled the contest on paper, even though the match itself ended without a winner on the field. The table below captures every key number from the four days at a glance.

What This Draw Meant for Both Campaigns

Conceding the first-innings lead in round one cost Kerala early momentum in a Group B table that stayed brutally tight all season — they eventually finished fifth with 14 points, missing the quarter-finals, while Maharashtra ended fourth on 24, also falling short of qualification. Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka went through from the group instead, with Karnataka reaching the final before Jammu and Kashmir won their maiden Ranji Trophy title in February 2026.

Final Elite Group B Standings, 2025-26

The Bigger Pattern This Match Revealed

Looking back at the full campaign, this draw was less an isolated setback than an early warning sign for Kerala: a team capable of explosive new-ball spells but short of the sustained control needed to convert dominant positions into results — the exact gap that kept them outside the top two in Group B all season. For Maharashtra, the Gaikwad-Saxena recovery validated their off-season recruitment of proven campaigners, even though it wasn’t enough, in the end, to push them past the group stage either.

Samson’s homecoming half-century offered a genuine bright spot for Kerala fans, but the missed opportunity at Greenfield International Stadium — squandering a five-wicket advantage inside the first session — became the template for a season that promised more than it delivered.

Head-to-Head Context in Domestic Cricket

Matches between established Ranji Trophy sides like Kerala and Maharashtra rarely produce outright winners inside four days once both attacks settle into containment mode, which is exactly why the first-innings-lead rule carries so much weight. Draws decided on first-innings runs, rather than a genuine result, have increasingly shaped the destiny of teams chasing knockout qualification across multiple recent Ranji Trophy seasons, and this fixture was a clear example of that trend playing out in real time.

Key Takeaways From the Kerala vs Maharashtra Ranji Trophy Draw

The Kerala vs Maharashtra Ranji Trophy draw came down to one factor: Maharashtra converted an 18/5 collapse into a first-innings lead, while Kerala could not turn early dominance into a result. Five points summarize why the match, and the wider season, unfolded the way it did.

• Kerala’s new-ball attack created a dream start by reducing Maharashtra to 18/5, but lacked a sustained follow-up plan once the pitch flattened out.
• The Gaikwad-Saxena stand of 122 runs was the single biggest factor separating the two sides on the scorecard.
• Kerala’s own middle order suffered a similar pattern of repeated small collapses, falling 20 runs short of parity.
• Maharashtra’s first-innings lead, worth three points to Kerala’s one, proved decisive for both campaigns’ final group-stage tallies.
• Neither side ultimately qualified for the knockouts, with Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka advancing from Group B instead.

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