Published: Oct 15, 2015, 08:53 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 31, 2016, 02:56 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live coverage of Day One of the Ranji Trophy 2015-16 Group A match between Bengal and Rajasthan. Bengal and Rajasthan will face each other today i.e. on 15 October’ 2015 at Bengal’s home ground Kolkata in Ranji Trophy 2015-16. Bengal are at eighth position in their group as of now. They drew their last match against Karnataka. Bengal played well in that match, it was just that Karnataka performed even better. Currently Bengal have only one point from one match since Karnataka went past their first innings lead comfortable. Rajasthan on the other hand have lost one match and drew the other. Thus, they have three points from two matches. Rajasthan lost their previous match against Assam. Assam won that game by an innings and 152 runs thus completely crushing Rajasthan in the match. Hence, by previous performances we can see that Bengal have an edge over Rajasthan going in this match since their players esp. the batters are in good form. Read all Ranji Trophy 2015-16 team previews here
Rajasthan, on the other hand would be looking to show resilience and bounce back in the series but they will be up against a better side Bengal. Batting is Rajasthan’s chief worry although their bowling was also not good either in their last match. If Rajasthan really wishes to get back in the series their batters esp. the openers have to bat well and see them through the first 20 overs of their innings. Their bowlers will have to stop the likes of Manoj Tiwary and Sudip Chatterjee. Bengal on the other hand will hope that Chatterjee continues to bat the way he did in their last match and keep his form going.
Live cricket scores Rajasthan 102/3 | Overs 43.2| Batting: Vineet Saxena 31(119), PR Yadav 0(4): Ashok Menaria was bowled on Pragyan Ojha’s ball for 40. Vineet Saxena is batting on 31 but he needs to up the tempo since he is batting very slowly. Pragyan Ojha picked two wickets in 14 overs and gave just 24 runs in the process.
OUT! Ashok Menaria b Pragyan Ojha 40(86)
Live cricket scores Rajasthan 99/2 | Overs 40| Batting: Vineet Saxena 30(108), Ashok Menaria 39(82):
Both Vineet Sharma and Ashok Menaria are batting patiently. Rajasthan is now just one run short of reaching hundred runs. NB Singh and AV Choudhary are next. Bengal will have to break this partnership now or else things will get very difficult later on. Veerpratap Singh and Pragyan Ojha have picked a wicket each.
Live cricket scores Rajasthan 93/2 | Overs 36| Batting: Vineet Saxena 29(96), Ashok Menaria 38(69): Vineet Sharma and Ashok Menaria have struck a cord. Their partnership has taken Rajasthan out of danger but their job is not yet finished. Both the batters are looking set to score their respective half centuries. Both, Vineet and Menaria have hit five shots to the fence so far. Menaria needs 12 more runs to get to his fifty.
Live cricket scores Rajasthan 70/2 | Overs 26| Batting: Vineet Saxena 26(75), Ashok Menaria 19(35): Ankit Lamba gets out on seven. Pragyan Ojha claimed his wicket. At present Rajasthan are batting on 70 and have lost two wickets in the endeavour. Vineet Saxena and Ashok Menaria are doing the rebuilding process.
OUT! Ankit Lamba c Naved Ahmad b Pragyan Ojha 7(29)
Live cricket scores Rajasthan 23/1 | Overs 6| Batting: Vineet Saxena 5(11), Ankit Lamba 0(2): Rajasthan have lost their first wicket in the form of Suwalka for just 18 runs. He misjudges Veerpratap Singh’s ball and is bowled. Ankit Lamba has come to the crease. Losing early wickets has always been a problem with Team Rajasthan. Let’s see if Lamba and Saxena can get them out of danger.
OUT! ST Suwalka b Veerpratap Singh 18(23)
Live cricket scores Rajasthan 18/0 | Overs 5| Batting: ST Suwalka 18(21), Vineet Saxena 0(9): Suwalka has hit four boundaries so far, Vineet Saxena who is batting on the other end is yet to open his account. Saxena has faced nine balls. Rajasthan have started their innings on a positive note but the duo of Suwalka and Saxena needs to keep going for the next 15 overs at least to bring Rajasthan in a strong position. For Bengal, there is pressure on Ashok Dinda and Veerpratap Singh to pick early wickets.
Live cricket scores Rajasthan 4/0 | Overs 1| Batting: ST Suwalka 5(6), Vineet Saxena 0(0): Rajasthan has started batting after opting to bat first on winning the toss. Rajasthan openers have a tough job ahead, they have to bat sensibly and see the first 20 overs off. If Rajasthan doesn’t loses any wicket in the initial overs they will have a good chance to post a hefty total on board. Hence, openers ST Suwalka and Vineet Saxena have great responsibility on their shoulders; it’s needed that they play scoring shots only on lose deliveries.
Toss: Rajasthan, who chose to Bat
Teams:
Bengal: Manoj Tiwary, Naved Ahmed, Abhishek Das, Shreevats Goswami, Sudip Chatterjee,Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Pragyan Ojha, Veer Pratap Singh, Ashok Dinda, Sourav Sarkar
Rajasthan: N B Singh, Vineet Saxena, Ashok Menaria (c), A V Choudhary, D L Chahar, D H Yagnik (wk), M S Khatri, P I Sharma, P R Yadav, R K Bishnoi Sr, Ankush Bikram Singh
