Bengals dream of winning a Ranji trophy after more than three decades suffered a setback as the Saurashtra pace duo of Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya left-arm rattled the top of the home team to bundle them for a paltry 174 on the opening day of the summit Thursday in Kolkata. It would have been more embarrassing for Bengal, but spin all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed (69) and wicket-keeper Abhishek Porel (50) saved the hosts from the blush with gritty half-centuries.
The pair led the way to the top in a stand of 101 runs for the seventh wicket, batting for nearly four hours to frustrate Saurashtra.
But they had a sense of urgency and took risks as Saurashtra closed out Bengal’s innings with left arm spinner Dharmendrasingh Jadeja (2/19) scalping two wickets.
At the end of the first day, Saurashtra was 81 for 2, trailing Bengal by 93 points.
In form opener Harvik Desai (38), who has made over 600 runs this season, was on the crease with night watchman Sakariya (2).
The duo survived a late attack by the Bengal pace duo of Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar to bring the deficit below 100.
With their leading run-getter of the season Aprit Vasavada (826 runs at 75.06) yet to come along with the prolific duo of Sheldon Jackson (529) and Chirag Jani (509), Saurashtra would certainly be looking forward to a head start in the first innings.
Bangladesh bowlers looked pedestrian at the start but Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar took some bargains at the end of the day to dismiss Jay Gohil (6) and Vishvaraj Jadeja (25) respectively.
Unadkat (3/44) made a comeback after being released from the Test side and produced a great opening spell of 5-2-7-2 as Sakariya (3/33) initially let the ball do the talking to take Bengal back to 17 for 4 in 31 minutes.
Bengal lost half of their side on a score of 34 for 5 in one hour and 13 minutes as third sailor Chirag Jani (2/33) also made good use of the vibrant Eden surface.
After winning a good pitch on a green top, Unadkat along with fellow left arm pacemaker Sakariya set the tone in the morning session, dismissing their top-four batters within 17 runs.
Surviving the first hour of play when the ball swings viciously on the Eden strip would always be key and Bengal are well versed in the home situation.
But it was the visitors who took advantage of the conditions by bowling a probing line that plagued the batters.
The necessity of the first hour was to show some patience and judge the ball well, but the top four Bangladeshi batters continued with pre-mediated shots and only lasted 29 balls.
Abhimanyu Easwaran showed lack of application and fell for a duck who fell victim to Unadkat in the fifth ball of the day.
The spirited start pumped up the Saurashtra camp and Sumanta Gupta who debuted in the final couldn’t handle the pressure and succumbed to a peach of a delivery from Sakariya on the other side to be out.
Sakariya was on a roll when he cleared Sudip Kumar Gharami’s stump two balls later.
Skipper Manoj Tiwary became Unadkat’s second victim as he jabbed a wide throw to beat Vishvaraj Jadeja at the gully.
All eyes were on another veteran Anustup Majumdar, who was Bengal’s best run catcher this season, to revive the innings.
Majumdar also built a mini-partnership with rookie pace bowling all-rounder Akash Ghatak, who replaced Pradipta Pramanik in the playing XI, and was promoted to No. 6.
But Majumdar played a freak shot against Saurashtra’s third sailor Jani as Bengal lost half of their squad on the stroke of drinks in the first session.
From 34 for 5, Shahbaz took charge of proceedings and counter-attacked the Saurashtra bowlers reaching 11 boundaries.
Luck was on his side too as he was repelled on 26, while on 38 a Prerak Mankad delivery appeared to hit the stump on repeat but Saurashtra failed to use the DRS.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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