Pic Courtesy: XtraTime
Internet Desk: After being imposed a follow-on by Vidarbha on Day 3, Bengal were struggling on 86/3 with Sudeep Chatterjee 40 and Manoj Tiwary 36 batting on the crease. Set to exceed the mammoth of a total of 499 set by Vidarbha, Bengal ended their first innings after being bowled out on 207.
Day 4 saw Manoj Tiwary being dismissed early on 43 while Sudip Chatterjee played a brilliant knock of 82 which had 12 boundaries. The helm of the Bengal innings were held to a certain extent owing to a partnership between Sudip and Wriddhiman Saha. The Indian test team wicket-keeper, Wriddhiman Saha missed his ton by a whisker. With 13 boundaries and 2 huge sixes Wriddhiman was unfortunately run out on 97.
With the dismissal of Wriddhiman, the entire Bengal middle order collapsed as Shreevats Goswami was dismissed on 1. With Amir Gani’s 22 and Kanish Seth’s 32, Bengal ended their second innings on 306.
The Vidarbha bowlers were on a prolific form as Lalit Yadav bagged 4 wickets while Aditya Sarwate scalped 3 wickets.
With just a couple of runs to win the game, Vidarbha openers didn’t waste any opportunity and ended the game in 1.3 overs by scoring 18 runs.
In other match, Opener KL Rahul(92) missed out on a century after Abhimanyu Mithun orchestrated Delhi’s fall with a five-wicket haul as Karnataka earned three points on the basis of their first innings in the Group A Ranji Trophy match, which ended in a draw, on Sunday.
Karnataka strengthened their top position in the table by taking their tally to 23 while Delhi are second on 17.
Crisis man Siddhesh Lad batted stubbornly in making a patient, unconquered 71 to bail out oft-crowned champions Mumbai against Baroda in their landmark 500th Ranji Trophy Group C game that was drawn on Sunday.
The short-statured batsman remained unbeaten after staying at the crease over five hours and facing 238 balls in the Mumbai second innings score of 260 for 7 at the Wankhede Stadium.
After suffering this huge loss Bengal wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha said, “If we get full points in thr next two games, the entire scenario will change. Those who are writing us off will have a lot to think about it”.
The Bengal brigade had many flaws in their game and the Bengal keeper too accepted the same, thereby saying, “Yes we had a lot of mistakes. Neither the batting or bowling was done according to the plan. If in such a batting friendly wicket the batsmen fail to score then it is obvious to lose the game”
Wriddhiman and Sudip built a solid partnership but unfortunately was broken. “To gain a point, the objective was to bat the entire day and we decided that in the crease. However one mistake costed us the point”