KOLKATA: For the first time in three days, Bengal dominated a session as they fought desperately to keep their hopes afloat against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy final at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday. Old warhorse Manoj Tiwary once again showed the way stitching together a 99-run fourth-wicket stand with Anushtup Majumder (61) after the visitors took a healthy 230-run lead before being bowled out for 404 runs in the morning.
At stumps on Day 3, Bengal did well to stay alive finishing at 169 for four, still 61 runs behind Saurashtra's total with Tiwary unbeaten on 57. Needing to not only zero out the deficit but also set up a challenging total for Saurashtra to force a favourable result, Bengal once again made a shaky start in the second innings losing both the openers and one-down Sudip Gharami to be reduced to 47 for three by the 16th over. But it was Tiwary who led from the front, keeping his team on a possible comeback tra il, and got support from seasoned campaigner Majumder.
The selection of Sumanta Gupta will continue to haunt Bengal if they fail to win this final. The opener was once again found wanting in his technique for this level of cricket and in an almost action replay of his first-innings dismissal, he was caught at second slip edging an away going delivery of Chet an Sakariya for one, the same score he managed in the first essay.
Sakariya picked up Abhimanyu Easwaran caught behind in the fifth over after the lunch interval while skipper Jaydev Unadkat got youngster Sudip Gharami when Prerak Mankad took a low catch at second slip.
Tiwary and Majumder then settled down to steady the innings. With both Unadkat and Sakariya bowling a great line, the duo got beaten a number of times outside the off-stump. But they managed to see off the second session without further hiccups for Bengal. It was in the third session that the batters opened up to get some quick runs with Majumder hitting Sakariya for three boundaries in the second over after tea.
It required the experience of Unadkat to break the stand as he returned for his second spell to get Majumder dismissed for a well-made 61.
Earlier, the Bengal pacers came good in the morning, wrapping up the Saurashtra innings for 404, half-an-hour before the lunch break. Mukesh Kumar did the maximum damage removing overnight batter Arpit Vasavada caught behind in the fifth ball of the morning. Wicketkeeper Abhishek Porel had his second victim in Chirag Jani who edged Mukesh for 60. However, some poor catching and sloppy fielding prevented Bengal from folding up theSaurashtra tail earlier with the last-wicket pair of Parth Bhuth and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja adding 35 vital runs.
