Delhi relied on left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan’s four-wicket haul to restrict Bengal to 357 and then toiled hard to score 100 for three in its first innings on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Group A match, at the Ferozeshah Kotla, here on Friday.
Sangwan, the best Delhi bowler on the opening day despite his figures of one for 36, continued with renewed vigour to add three more wickets to his kitty and lead his team’s fightback to stop Bengal, which began from 272 for three, within an hour of the post-lunch session.
The Delhi bowlers gave a much improved performance by hitting the right length and asking more questions. Parvinder Awana provided the breakthrough in the sixth over of the day when he bowled centurion Sudip Chatterjee with a delivery that moved in off the pitch. The left-hander, who added eight runs to his previous day’s score of 108, collected 155 runs with Wriddhiman Saha for the fourth wicket.
In fact, Chatterjee’s dismissal proved to be the turning point. In the next delivery, Pankaj Shaw played Awana to third man and pressed for a non-existent second run resulting in the run out of Saha. Navdeep Saini’s threw from the deep and Awana completed the formalities.
Shaw was caught behind in the next over as Bengal gave up its hope of posting a big total.
Aamir Gani (26, 73b, 2x4) and Veerpratap Singh (26, 77b, 4x4) hung on to help their side go past the 350-run mark. Sangwan, who extracted good bounce and movement from the track, ended the duo’s resistance before claiming Ashoke Dinda’s wicket.
The touring team could only add 85 runs at the expense of seven wickets in about 46 overs.
Delhi fumbled in its reply as Gautam Gambhir was out lbw in the first ball he faced.
Unmukt Chand showed some promise before being adjudged lbw off Pragyan Ojha and debutant wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who batted brilliantly, edged one to Saha when he tried to cut Veerpratap Singh.
Pant’s wicket was a huge boost for Bengal as the rookie defended solidly and hit some attractive boundaries and a straight six off Ojha.
However, young Nitish Rana (30 batting, 97b, 5x4) and Milind Kumar (20 batting, 81, 4x4, 1x6) worked hard to prevent any further trouble and added 44 runs.
Ongole: Andhra struck three early blows to reduce Uttar Pradesh to 39 for three in 20 overs in its second innings after taking a first innings lead of 127 runs in the Ranji Trophy Group ‘B’ match at PDCA- CSR Sarma College grounds, here, on Friday.
Uttar Pradesh, which began its second innings after tea, was in trouble soon as Andhra pacers bowled their hearts out to take three quick wickets.
The manner in which the young debutant K.V. Sasikanth took a tumbling one-handed catch, running quite a distance from mid-off, to send back danger-man Tanmay Srivastava, reflected the intentions of the host to go for the kill in its final home match.
A disappointing batting performance by Karnataka cost the side the first-innings lead, in its Ranji Trophy Group ‘A’ encounter against Haryana, here on Friday.
The home side was bowled out for 221 on the second day, 110 runs short of the Haryana score. Opener K.L. Rahul (63, 103b) and C.M. Gautam (41 n.o., 103b) were the two best batsmen on view, but the team, as a whole, flattered to deceive. Manish Pandey, who injured a finger while fielding, did not come out to bat.
The morning session saw Haryana lose its final two wickets in just 19 balls, with pacer H.S. Sharath (five for 48) recording his best-ever first-class figures.
The scores:
Group A:
At New Delhi (Kotla): Bengal 357 in 135.5 overs (Sudip Chatterjee 116, Manoj Tiwary 55, Wriddhiman Saha 72, Pradeep Sangwan four for 48) vs. Delhi 100 for three in 42 overs.
At Mysuru: Haryana 331 in 90.1 overs (Virender Sehwag 136, Jayant Yadav 100, H.S. Sharath five for 48) & 27 for no loss in nine overs vs. Karnataka 221 in 75.4 overs (K.L. Rahul 63, C.M. Gautam 41 n.o.)
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 318 in 102.1 overs (Ashok Menaria 84, Rajat Bhatia 59, Deepak Chahar 41 n.o.) vs. Maharashtra 244 for five in 71 overs (Kedhar Jadhav 45, Rahul Tripathi 47 batting, Chirag Khurana 64 batting)
At Nagpur: Assam 206 & 36 for two in 16 overs vs. Vidarbha 154 in 74 overs (Ganesh Satish 67, Wasim Jaffer 40, Sarupam Purkayastha four for 47)
Group B:
At Ongole: Uttar Pradesh 170 & 39 for three in 20 overs vs. Andhra 297 in 95.3 overs (D.B. Prashanth Kumar 67, K.S. Bharat 62, Praveen Kumar four for 86).
At Vadodara: Mumbai 447 in 127.1 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 67, Shreyas Iyer 173, Suryakumar Yadav 68, Abhishek Nayar 89, Ajitesh Argal four for 67) vs. Baroda 133 for one in 45 overs (Kedar Devdhar 84 batting)
At Patiala: Madhya Pradesh 370 in 125.1 overs (Aditya Shrivastava 131, Jalaj Saxena 70, Rameez Khan 66, Sarbjeet Ladda five for 110) vs. Punjab 182 for two in 56 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 64, Uday Kaul 55 batting)
At New Delhi (Karnail Singh): Gujarat 387 in 127.4 overs (Piyush Panchal 141, Parthiv Patel 58, Rush Kalaria 80 n.o., Anureet Singh four for 91) vs. Railways 168 for four in 51.2 overs (Saurabh 93)
Group C:
At Dharamsala: Goa 324 in 104.4 overs (Sagun Kamat 163, Snehal Kauthankar 74, Rishi Dhawan six for 108) vs. Himachal Pradesh 298 for five in 67.2 overs (Paras Dogra 139 batting, N.R. Gangta 47)
At Rajkot: Saurashtra 102 & 215 in 67 overs (Chirag Jani 65, Mehdi Hasan five for 69, Vishal Sharma four for 92) bt Hyderabad 148 & 134 in 40 overs (B. Sandeep 46, Ravindra Jadeja seven for 60). Points: Saurashtra 6 (19), Hyderabad 0 (3).
At New Delhi (Palam): Kerala 322 in 151 overs (V.A. Jagadeesh 59, Rohan Prem 101, Sachin Baby 51) vs. Services 66 for no loss in 29 overs.
At Agartala: Jammu & Kashmir 428 in 121.2 overs (Mithun Manhas 96, Parvez Rasool 130, Bandeep Singh 63) vs. Tripura 85 for two in 42 overs (U.U. Bose 40)
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