Kolkata : Shreevats Goswami and Anustup Majumdar struck sublime centuries to help Bengal wriggle out from an ominous start and pile 305 for five on day one of their Ranji Trophy group D fixture against Goa at Eden Gardens here today.
22-year-old debutant medium pacer Lakshay Garg (2/55) rattled Bengal’s top order removing Sudip Chatterjee (1) and captain Manoj Tiwary (0) in successive overs to have them 20 for three inside 13 overs after Goa opted to bowl on an Eden greentop.
But Goswami struck a 194-ball 139 (20×4) in a 213-run fifth wicket partnership with Anustup Majumdar who remained unbeaten on 107 from 182 balls (13×4) to help Bengal seize the momentum after Goa dominated the first session.
Needing three points to seal a knock-out berth, Bengal were 305 for five with Writtick Chatterjee unbeaten on six along with Majumdar when bad light stopped play at 84 overs on day one.
Earlier Goa medium-pacers made full use of the conditions with Felix Alemao (1/67) giving the breakthrough in his first over of the day when he trapped Abhishek Raman (1) lbw with Bengal 1/1 in 1.4 overs.
Chatterjee started off slowly but only to be done in by debutant seamer Garg as the Bengal number three edged one behind the stumps for his maiden first-class wicket.
Continuing his superb spell, Garg took the prized scalp of skipper Tiwary for a duck in his next over as Bengal looked in a spot leaving opener Easwarn and Goswami to build their innings.
Goa skipper Darshan Misal brought in leftarm spinner Amulya Pandrekar who cleaned up Easwaran six runs shy of a half-century as Bengal were reeling at 92 for four at lunch.
But Goswami and Majumdar revived their innings and milked Goan bowlers with the former notching up his half-century in 86 balls and stepped up the run-rate en route to his fourth first-class century in 135 balls.
Majumdar posted his fifth first-class century off 171 balls as Goa finally broke their double century partnership Pandrekar dismissing Goswami for his second wicket.
Brief Scores
In Kolkata: Bengal 305/5; 84 overs (Shreevats Goswami 139, Anustup Majumdar 107 batting; Amulya Pandrekar 2/50, Lakshay Garg 2/55) vs Goa.
In Amritsar: Punjab 395/2; 90 overs (Shubham Gill 129, Anmolpreet Singh 129 batting, Gurkeerat Mann 68 batting) vs Services.
In Nagpur: Himachal Pradesh 287/6; 90 overs (Sumeet Verma 66, Rishi Dhawan 57, Prashant Chopra 41; Rajneesh Gurbani 3/90) vs Vidarbha.