The Ishan Porel-led Bengal pace battery gave the team a bright start by bundling out Baroda for 181 runs in the first innings on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Barabati Stadium here on Thursday.
In reply, Bengal was at 24 for the loss of its captain Abhimanyu Easwaran when bad light, owing overcast conditions in the final session, stopped play.
The Bengal pacers, who utilised the morning conditions and variable bounce to ask questions frequently, backed their skipper’s decision to field first by overcoming the disappointment of missing out on chances in the first hour.
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J.K. Singh got a reprieve when he was dropped in the third over off Mukesh Kumar. His opening companion and captain Kedar Devdhar was caught in the first slip on 27 off an Akash Deep no-ball.
While Akash made several loud shouts, it was Ishan who extracted subtle movement to provide the breakthroughs after changing ends in the 15 over. At an aggregate of 41, Devdhar was surprised by the extra bounce and looped one to gully. P.A. Kumar was adjudged lbw.
In his next over, Ishan got rid of Shivalik Sharma as debutant wicketkeeper Abhishek Porel pouched a low catch to his left.
Akash too struck twice in one over to dismiss Krunal Pandya and Abhimanyu Singh. Shahbaz bowled J.K. Singh to reduce Baroda to 95 for six at lunch.
After the fall of two more wickets, promising wicketkeeper-batter Mitesh Patel revived Baroda’s innings with an impactful knock (66, 104b, 6x4, 1x6) and a 55-run ninth wicket stand with Bhargav Bhatt (30 n.o., 47b, 3x4, 1x6) when conditions eased out.
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Mitesh, bearing some resemblance to M.S. Dhoni, drove and pulled with confidence to get his boundaries as well as the ones and twos.
Bengal lost its grip before a disciplined Mukesh removed Mitesh, who was held by a diving Akash at deep point. Mukesh also took Lukman Meriwala’s wicket to wrap up the Baroda innings.
“As a bowling unit we have bowled well. We have started at the same page from where we had left off two years ago,” said Ishan.
The scores:
Baroda
1st innings: J.K. Singh b Shahbaz 23, Kedar Devdhar c Writtick b Ishan 31, P.A. Kumar lbw b Ishan 0, Shivalik Sharma c Abhishek b Ishan 4, Krunal Pandya c Writtick b Akash 6, Abhimanyu Singh c Abhishek b Akash 0, Mitesh Patel c Akash b Mukesh 66, Dhruv Patel c Sudip Chatterjee b Ishan 5, Atit Sheth c Abhishek b Mukesh 5, Bhargav Bhatt (not out) 30, Lukman Meriwala c Anustup b Mukesh 2, Extras (b-4, lb-2, w-1, nb-2) 9, Total (in 54.2 overs) 181
Fall of wickets: 1-41, 2-41, 3-47, 4-64, 5-64, 6-83, 7-109, 8-121, 9-176
Bengal bowling: Mukesh 16.2-5-33-3, Ishan 14-3-40-4, Akash 15-1-63-2, Shahbaz 7-0-30-1, Writtick 2-0-9-0.
Bengal
1st innings: Sudip Gharami (batting) 11, Abhimanyu Easwaran c Mitesh b Meriwala 4, Sudip Chatterjee (batting) 9, Total (for one wicket in 13 overs) 24
Fall of wicket: 1-5
Baroda bowling: Meriwala 6-3-6-1, Sheth 4-1-9-0, Dhruv 1-0-2-0, Bhargav 1-0-6-0, Krunal 1-0-1-0.
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