da betsul： Rajasthan placed themselves in a commanding position by obtaining afirst innings lead of 93 runs against Bengal in their Ranji TrophySuper League Group A encounter at the Eden Gardens on Saturday
Sakyasen Mittra26-Feb-2000Rajasthan placed themselves in a commanding position by obtaining afirst innings lead of 93 runs against Bengal in their Ranji TrophySuper League Group A encounter at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. In theprocess they also guaranteed themselves of five points. Bengal wereall out for 284 replying to Rajasthan’s first innings score of 377. Intheir second innings at close of play on the third day, Rajasthan were72 for three wickets at stumps.Much depended on Devang Gandhi. But the former Indian playerdisappointed getting out in the fourth over of the day. Trying to cutoff spinner Rahul Kanwath, Gandhi nicked a catch to wicketkeeperR. Jahalani. It was a stroke that could have been avoided as the ballwas too full for the cut shot. It was then a matter of time before theBengal innings ended. The only person who waged a single handed battlewas Srikanth Kalyani. He fought on gamely and remained unbeaten on 83with the help of seven boundaries when the innings ended. He playedeach ball on its merit and was severe on anything that was pitchedshort.However, other than Wrichik Mazumdar, nobody was there to supportKalyani’s cause. Mazumdar (25 with three boundaries) added 46 for theseventh wicket. But then he fell to good catch at silly point of thebowling of R. Jaykumar, Nikhil Doru anticipating the sharp bat-padchance to his right.Left arm spinner Devinder Pal Singh was the most successful bowlerscalping three wickets. He bowled a restrictive line forcing thebatsman into errors. Anshu Jain, Jaykumar and Kanwath picked up acouple apiece. However, Bengal came back strongly in the match in thesecond innings. They had both the Rajasthan openers back in thepavilion with only 20 runs on the board. Lakshmi Ratan Shukladismissed skipper Gagan Khoda and Utpal Chatterjee, bowling with thenew ball, trapped Anhsu Jain leg before. However Kanwath and NikhilDoru steadied the innings. Kanwath fell two overs before close toChatterjee but by then the two had probably thwarted Bengal’s hopes ofa victory.