Ranji Trophy: Chatterjee double ton strengthens Bengal

Writtick Chatterjee, who started from his overnight score of 40, slammed his maiden double century; Abhimanyu Easwaran scored another ton.

Writtick Chatterjee, who scored a double hundred and helped Bengal take away the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match from Gujarat, in Jaipur on Sunday.

 

Bengal built a mountain of runs to tighten the noose around a hapless Gujarat on the fourth day of the quarterfinal match at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Sunday.

Resuming from 177 for one, the Manoj Tiwary-led side rode on Writtick Chatterjee's maiden double century to score 483 for four in its second innings and shut the door on Gujarat by garnering a massive lead of 613 runs.

Scorecard

Chatterjee, who started from his overnight score of 40, continued to strengthen his association with the other unbeaten batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran.

Easwaran, beginning from 93, scored his second century of the match. He hoisted left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai to the sight screen to achieve the feat.

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Interestingly, Easwaran had scored two hundreds in Bengal's last Ranji outing at the venue, against Uttar Pradesh, a year ago.

The prolific Bengal opener's essay came to end when Ishwar Chaudhary had him caught and bowled with the second new ball.

Easwaran (114 off 250 balls, 13x4, 2x6) and Chatterjee forged a 121-run second wicket stand to dictate the course of the contest.

A patient Chatterjee (213 batting off 357 balls, 23x4, 1x6) played more confidently on Sunday and picked up some beautiful boundaries on either side. He swept the spinners at will and stepped out to hit Desai for a six over long on.

Chatterjee and Tiwary (59 off 177, 4x4) joined hands to add 166 runs on a placid track, on which the Gujarat bowlers toiled with their thankless job.

Gujarat missed its leader Parthiv Patel, who went off the field before the lunch break to nurse a bruised finger.

Chatterjee, who was dropped off Chawla's bowling on 195, played the leg-spinner for a four to fine leg to achieve his double hundred.

“This is the maximum time (more than four sessions) I have spent in the middle. I was focused on the team's strategy of batting as long as possible,” said Chatterjee, who scored his maiden century in the previous match against Goa.

The 25-year-old, who had an unsteady career since his debut in 2013 and played only four matches till last season, added 88 runs with Shreevats Goswami (32) as the Gujarat fielders, having spent more than five sessions on the ground, made some lapses to enhance their agony.