Internet Desk: Bengal continued its dominance over Chhattisgarh on the second day of their Ranji Trophy clash in Raipur. Manoj Tiwary and his team further tightened their grip over the match as the bowlers sent back half the Chhattisgarh batting order to the dressing room (80/5) after putting a mammoth first innings score of 529/7 declared. Left hander Sudip Chatterjee continued his good form with the bat as he registered his second successive ton of the season. Sudip scored a stroke filled 118 runs off 191 balls that included 12 hits to the fence.
Beginning the day at 238 for 2, Bengal lost Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha just when they looked to flourish, but Sudip carried his bat with spunk as he hit his second ton in as many matches in Ranji this season.
“It is never easy to get a century. And to get it back to back after the poor run of form is special to me. I was getting starts and not converting them. I decided to stick to my task and have been making sure there is no lapse in concentration,” Sudip said.
He also praised Anustup and Amit for the brisk scoring down the order that set the match up perfectly. “Shami and Dinda (da) bowled really well they lured the batsman into making mistakes. And Gani bowled a gem of a delivery that bowled Manoj Singh. He had no clue whatsoever. We hope to enforce follow-on early tomorrow,” he added.
As Sudip stated the turning point of the game was a 120 run seventh wicket partnership set up by Anustup Mazumdar and B Amit off just 152 balls to take Bengal past the 500 mark with daylight left to bowl. Anustup’s unbeaten 70 came off 88 balls with nine hits to the fence and one over it, while B Amit was snapped up by S A Singh after he completed his 50 off just 66 balls and eight perfectly placed boundaries.
When Bengal came out to bowl they showed purpose and intent as Ashoke Dinda and Mohammad Shami both made the cherry trouble the rival batsmen. By the time Amir Gani came in as first change for Dinda, the former had removed Jatin Saxena and A N Khare. His new ball partner Shami was equally menacing getting S Gupta and skipper Mohammed Kaif cheaply. Gani also got among wickets reducing the hosts to 80 for 5. The only bright spot for Chhattisgarh was Asutosh Singh who completed his half century (51) and remained unbeaten at stumps.
With 449 runs behind, Chhattisgarh was looking down the barrel and only a miracle could turn the tide in their favour. Otherwise Bengal looked set to bag all 6 points from this tie.