Kolkata: Brilliant tons from both openers Faiz Fazal and Sanjay Ramaswamy put Vidarbha in total control over hosts Bengal as they reach 285 for the loss of one wicket in a Ranji Trophy group D encounter at Kalyani today.
Vidarbha’s star left-hand batsman Fazal is going through the form of his life. He scored his third successive century of the season and played a gem of a knock of 142 runs (22×4) before getting out against Ashoke Dinda. It was his 14th first-class hundred. On the other hand Ramaswamy supported him really well at the other end to remain not out on 117. They both shared a partnership of 259 runs for the first wicket. Veteran Wasim Jaffer (18) was at the crease along with Ramaswamy when bad light forced the umpires to stop the game after 83 overs at the end of day 1.
Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary’s decision to bowl after winning the toss didn’t go in his team’s favour as the Vidarbha openers presented a frustrating day to the bowlers of the home team.
After scoring back to back 125 and 136 against Chhattisgarh and Services respectively, Fazal continued his dream run at Kalyani too. Ashoke Dinda (1/62) was the only wicket taker for the home side as the other bowlers were hammered by the Vidarbha batsmen through all parts of the ground.
“We would have batted had we won the toss and knew they would put us in as they have a good seam attack,” said the 32-year-old Fazal at the end of day’s play. “The pitch actually suited our style of play. Sanjay and I are not big hitters and depend on timing of our shots to get our runs. As the ball was coming on to the bat nicely, it helped us to score freely,” Fazal said.
He, however, said that he was disappointed to miss a double ton but hoped that the other batsmen will pile more misery on the hosts.
The Bengal team tried to keep their chin up after a tough day in office. “We will try to get an early breakthrough with the second new ball tomorrow morning,” Tiwary, who employed six bowlers, including himself, said. Bengal brought in pacer Kanishk Seth in place of Mohammad Shami while Ishan Porel made his first-class debut replacing Mukesh Kumar.
In another match, the much-vaunted Mumbai batting line-up came a cropper on a lively track against the Baroda pace bowling duo of Atit Sheth and Lukman Meriwala as the hosts were shot out for a paltry 171 on day one of their 500th Ranji Trophy game on Thursday.
In reply, Baroda made 63 for 1 in 26 overs in their first innings in the Group C match at the Wankhede Stadium.
Cheteshwar Pujara (115 not out) and Snell Patel (156 not out) helped Saurashtra to post a mammoth 311/1 against Gujarat at the end of Day 1 on Thursday in their Ranji Trophy Group B fifth round encounter at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot.
In another match Opener Murali Vijay (140) warmed up in style for the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka by scoring a century to help Tamil Nadu reach 292 for 3 against Odisha on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy Group ‘C’ match on today.
Brief scores:
Kalyani: Vidarbha 285/1 (Faiz Fazal 142, SR Ramaswamy 117*) vs Bengal.
Jamshedpur: Jammu and Kashmir 357/6 (Shubham Khajuria 101, Punit Bisht 101*) vs Jharkhand.
Agartala: Andhra 252/2 (Prashanth Kumar 120*, Hanuma Vihari 62) vs Tripura.
Bangalore: Karnataka 348/4 (Mayank Agarwal 169*, Manish Pandey 74) vs Delhi.
Cuttack: Tamil Nadu 292/3 (Murali Vijay 140, N Jagadeesan 88) vs Odisha.
Guwahati: Assam 25/0 trail Uttar Pradesh 349 (Saurabh Kumar 133, Upendra Yadav 127, Rajjakuddin Ahmed 3/103) by 324 runs.
Mumbai: Baroda 63/1 (Vishnu Solanki 32*) trail Mumbai 171 (Aditya Tare 50, Atit Sheth 5/50, LI Meriwala 5/52) by 108 runs.
Lahli: Haryana 99/7 (Rajat Paliwal 32, Pankaj Singh 3/25, Aniket Chaudhary 2/13) vs Rajasthan.
Delhi: Services 228/8 (Nakul Verma 64, VU Yadav 61*, Heramb Parab 3/35) vs Goa.
Rajkot: Saurashtra 311/1 (Snell Patel 156*, Cheteshwar Pujara 115*) vs Gujarat.
Pune: Maharashtra 249/5 (Ankit Bawane 92, RH Motwani 52*) vs Railways.
Dharamsala: Chhattisgarh 91/1 (Rishabh Tiwari 46*, Ashutosh Singh 40*) trail Himachal Pradesh 175 (Rishi Dhawan 35, Pankaj Rao 3/52, SS Ruikar 3/20) by 84 runs.