Roaring form: Nidheesh showed up for Kerala with his sixth five-wicket haul. | Photo: NIRMAL HARINDRAN

Kerala did many things right on the first day and took control of the Ranji Trophy contest against Madhya Pradesh at the Sports Hub on Thursday.

Kerala captain Sachin Baby won the toss and chose to field under an overcast sky. M.D. Nidheesh obliged his skipper by picking up the sixth five-wicket haul (5/44) of his career as Madhya Pradesh folded for 160 runs.

Kerala’s makeshift opening pair of Akshay Chandran (22 batting) and Rohan Kunnummal (25 batting) stitched together an unbroken 54-run stand for the first wicket to put their side in command.

In the morning, Nidheesh and N.P. Basil made the ball shift off the seam regularly, and it drew a cautious response from the Madhya Pradesh openers.

However, Nidheesh induced the fatal edge from Harsh Gawali (7), which was snapped by wicketkeeper Azharuddeen. The medium pacer followed it up by bowling another beautiful delivery which forced an edge from Rajat Patidar (0).

Basil gave Himanshu Mantri (15) a working over and Nidheesh reaped the benefit in the next over by forcing an edge which was neatly taken by Baba Aparajith in the slips.

Harpreet Singh (5) missed the sweep and was trapped in front by Jalaj Saxena to leave MP tottering at 49 for four.

Venkatesh Iyer twisted his right ankle while attempting his first run and was forced to retire hurt.

The visitor’s skipper, Shubham Sharma, played fluently to resist the Kerala attack, but Aryan Pandey (0) poked at an innocuous delivery from Aditya Sarwate to give Aparajith a regulation catch as MP slumped to 63 for five.

Shoun Roger pulled off a stunning catch at short square leg to dismiss Saransh Jain (8) off Nidheesh.

The lanky medium pacer completed his fifer when Shubham (54) was bowled off an inside edge.

A hobbling Iyer found a good ally in Avesh Khan and the duo added 43 runs for the ninth wicket.

But Basil nipped both Iyer and Kuldeep Sen off successive deliveries to bring an end to the MP innings.

The scores:

Madhya Pradesh – 1st innings: Harsh Gawali c Azharuddeen b Nidheesh 7, Himanshu Mantri c Aparajith b Nidheesh 15, Rajat Patidar c Azharuddeen b Nidheesh 0, Shubham Sharma b Nidheesh 54, Harpreet Singh Bhatia lbw b Jalaj 5, Venkatesh Iyer b Basil 42, Aryan Pandey c Aparajith b Sarwate 0, Saransh Jain c Shoun b Nidheesh 8, Kumar Karthikeya b Sarwate 12, Avesh Khan not out 14, Kuldeep Sen b Basil 0; Extras (nb-1, 1b-2): 3; Total (in 60.2 overs): 160.

Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-15, 3-30, 4-49, 5-63, 6-75, 7-95, 8-117, 9-160.

Kerala bowling: Nidheesh 15-3-44-5, Basil 15-2-41-1, Jalaj 16-2-35-1, Sarwate 10-0-30-2, Aparajith 0.4-0-2-0, Askhay 1.2-0-2-0, Baby 2-0-4-0.

 Kerala – 1st innings: Akshay Chandran (batting) 22, Rohan S. Kunnummal (batting) 25; Extras (w-1, b-4, lb-2): 7; Total (for no loss in 18 overs): 54.

Madhya Pradesh bowling: Pandey 5-1-5-0, Avesh 5-1-12-0, Kuldeep 5-0-23-0, Karthikeya 2-0-7-0, Jain 1-0-7-0.