Ranji Trophy: Andhra pacers rattle Bengal in overcast Eden

With overcast conditions keeping the daylight at a premium, only 21 overs could be bowled as poor light forced forced four prolonged stoppages.

Andhra pacer K.V. Sasikanth, who claimed four wickets, celebrates the dismissal of B. Amit at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.

 

Bengal’s effort to post a big score was negated by some disciplined bowling by the Andhra pacers who ended the host’s first innings at 289 on the second day of Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match, at the Eden Gardens, here on Thursday.

With overcast conditions keeping the daylight at a premium, only 21 overs could be bowled as poor light forced forced four prolonged stoppages.

Andhra’s new-ball bowlers — left-arm pacer C. Stephen and K.V. Sasikanth — produced a disciplined display and ended Bengal’s resistance.

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Starting at 241 for four, Bengal suffered a big jolt in the first over of the day when centurion Abhishek Raman was clean bowled by Sasikanth. Raman could just add a couple of runs to his overnight score of 110.

After Raman’s departure, wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami tried to anchor the Bengal innings but his efforts did not bear much fruit as his colleagues failed to tackle Andhra’s pace battery. Goswami’s 25 remained the only instance of resistance offered by Bengal, which saw the last five wickets falling in just 45 runs.

Stephen and Sasikanth shared eight Bengal wickets to bring Andhra back in the contest.

Brief scores: Bengal 289 (A. Raman 112, M. Tiwary 46, S. Goswami 25; Sasikanth 4/64, C. Stephen 4/78) at stumps on Day 2