Ranji Trophy: Bengal restricts Vidarbha to 499 but loses early wickets

Ishan Porel took four wickets and Ashok Dinda took three as Bengal restricted Vidarbha to 499 on the second day of Ranji Trophy Group D match.

Ashok Dinda (right) picked up three wickets in the first innings.

Sanjay Ramaswamy and Aditya Sarvate's fine batting helped Vidarbha make 499 in its first innings on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group D match against Bengal at the Bengal Cricket Academy (BCA) ground here on Friday. Pacer Lalit Yadav's double assault helped Vidarbha gain the upper hand as Bengal closed the day at 89 for three. Starting from its overnight total of 285 for one, Vidarbha lost Wasim Jaffer early.

SCORECARDAshok Dinda picked up his second wicket by removing Siddhesh Wath but it was debutant pacer Ishan Porel, who impressed with his four-wicket haul and hurdled Vidarbha's progress. Porel took the wickets of Ganesh Satish and Apoorva Wankhede in quick succession as Vidarbha was reduced to 341 for five. However, overnight unbeaten batsman Sanjay, resuming from 117, remained unruffled and built an important partnership with Sarvate (89, 93b) to take Vidarbha to a position of strength. On 60, Sarvate, who played a fast and entertaining knock containing 10 fours and two sixes on the leg side, was retired hurt after being hit on the head by Porel. However, he returned to add 29 crucial runs. Sanjay, who added 65 to his previous day's score with the assistance of seven fours, became the victim of off-spinner Aamir Gani. Sarvate was caught behind off Porel. Bengal had a forgettable start as Lalit claimed Abhimanyu Easwaran in the first over. Lalit struck again in the 11th over by having Sudip Chatterjee caught by Faiz Fazal. Akshay Wakhare ended Abhishek Raman's resistance by accepting a return catch before skipper Manoj Tiwary (36 off 52 balls, 5x4) led Bengal's recovery.