Sudip Chatterjee marked his return to the Bengal team after a two-year hiatus in Tripura with a masterful century on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy encounter against Uttar Pradesh (UP) in Lucknow on Friday.
The 32-year-old opener brought up his 13th First-Class century (116, 127b, 9x4, 1x6), stitching up a 198-run partnership with Sudip Gharami (90, 161b, 11x4, 1x6) before an inspired spell of bowling from debutant Vipraj Nigam (four for 59) restricted Bengal to 269 for seven at the end of the first day’s play.
After Bengal captain Anustup Majumdar opted to bat on a red soil wicket with a tinge of green, UP bowlers Yash Dayal and Ankit Rajpoot peppered the openers with back-of-a-length deliveries.
The extra bounce off the surface and a hint of movement in the air meant the batters had to start cautiously. Dayal found an early breakthrough, getting a hint of outside movement that caught the edge of Abhimanyu Easwaran’s bat before nestling into wicketkeeper Aryan Juyal’s gloves.
Chatterjee continued at the other end, rolling his wrists to ride the bounce and finding avenues to rotate strike amid tight lines employed by the bowlers. Gharami was more aggressive, looking to step down the track to the pacers, finding the odd boundary to take the team to 87 for the fall of a single wicket at Lunch.
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Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar came close to a breakthrough early in the second session, getting one to come in with the angle and whizz past off-stump as Gharami shouldered arms.
A couple of boundaries in consecutive overs from Gharami’s bat helped release the pressure. The hundred partnership between the two came in 200 balls, and, after the introduction of the fifth bowler, Nigam, the batters put their foot on the accelerator.
Chatterjee trudged his way to a composed hundred in 189 balls, surviving a close lbw decision on the way after missing an attempted sweep. He and Gharami found singles with ease towards the close of the second session as the opposition went on the defensive, stationing boundary riders with leg-spinner Nigam and part-timer Nitish Rana bowling in tandem.
The tide turned post Tea after Nigam forced Gharami to edge behind before foxing skipper Majumdar in his next over with a googly, bowling him through the gate.
Nigam continued to be the centre of the action, firing in a quick throw from cover to run out Abishek Porel for two before trapping veteran wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha for nought with another googly.
The 20-year-old picked up his fourth wicket of the day, catching Writtick Chatterjee leg before wicket for 17, before Shahbaz Ahmed and Suraj Jaiswal batted out the final few minutes of play amid fading light.
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