RANJI TROPHY FINAL | Bengal fight back but Saurashtra maintain upper hand

Saurashtra maintained their grip over the Ranji Trophy final on day three despite a fighting stand between Bengal veteran Manoj Tiwary and Sudip Chatterjee on a deteriorating pitch here on Wednesday.

Chatterjee (47 not out off 145) and Tiwary (35 off 116) tooka leaf out of Cheteshwar Pujara’s book to share a gritty 89-run partnership off226 balls after Bengal were in a spot of bother at 35 for two at lunch.

   

Batting is only going to get tougher on this surface withthe ball keeping low right from day one, making it a steep challenge for Bengalto get past Saurashtra’s first innings total of 425.

Bengal reached 134 for three in 65 overs at close of play,trailing Saurashtra by 291 runs with Chatterjee and Wriddhiman Saha (4 off 43)in the middle.

Saurashtra, who resumed the day at 384 for eight, went on tobat for one hour and 10 minutes in the morning session to add 41 valuable runswith the last wicket pair of Jaydev Unadkat and Dharemendrasinh Jadejaproducing 38 runs.

Bengal coach Arun Lal asked his players to remain optimisticand stretch the fight.

“Fight on. It was an important toss. First couple ofdays the wicket still played better now it is misbehaving. There is rapid wearand tear but we will fight it till the end,” Lal said.

Saurashtra coach Karsan Ghavri said, “We are doing okayat the moment. But cricket is a funny game, things can change quickly. It isnot a bad wicket. Our batsmen showed it. The odd ball is keeping low. That isit.”

On day two, Pujara and Arpit Vasavada batted together forfive hours to put Saurashtra in a strong position and Bengal too will have tocome up with something special to stay in the game.

While Saurashtra are aiming for their maiden title, Bengalhave not won Ranji Trophy since 1989-90.

The home team’s bowlers will be aiming for the stumps on dayfour like they did on Wednesday, hoping the pitch does the rest. Tiwary’sdismissal clearly showed how tough it has become to bat on the uneven surface.

Chirag Jani had him trapped in front of the stumps with aball that came back in sharply at a low height and there was not much Tiwarycould do about it. It was a sort of redemption for Jani, who had oversteppedwhen Tiwary, batting on 18, played on to his stumps.

The afternoon session was a good one for Bengal as they didnot lose a wicket and collected 59 runs.

Tiwary and Chatterjee provided the much needed fight backafter Bengal lost their openers — debutant Sudip Kumar Gharami (26) andAbhimanyu Easwaran (9), in the morning.

Gharami, who captains Bengal U-23, showed a lot of promisebefore getting caught at short leg off left-arm spinner Jadeja. He looked moreassured than Easwaran who ended a forgettable season with the bat.

Gharami impressed by hitting opposition skipper Unadkat for twoboundaries in the same over, one coming off a flick and the other with abeautiful straight drive.

Easwaran’s fall led to the lunch break but he would considerhimself a tad unfortunate to be adjudged out lbw since the ball appeared tomiss the stumps.

He took the limited DRS on offer but the third umpire couldnot overule the on-field umpire’s call as he did not have ball trackingavailable, raising questions over the restrictive use of the technology.

Chatterjee too survived a close DRS call late in the dayafter the on-field umpire adjudged him lbw off pacer Chetan Sakariya. No runcame off the bat in the last 59 balls of the final session.

Early in the morning, Bengal pacer Akash Deep took his fourth wicket by getting through the defence of Jani, who was helpless with the ball keeping really low. However, Saurashtra added 38 runs for the 10th wicket to get past 400.

BRIEF SCORES:

Saurashtra 1st innings: 425 all out in 171.5 overs (AVasavada 106, C Pujara 66; Akash Deep 4/98)Bengal 1st innings:134/3 in 65 overs (S Chatterjee 47 batting, M Tiwary 35; P Mankad 1/7).

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