Published: Dec 01, 2018, 02:44 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 01, 2018, 02:44 PM (IST)
Dramatic scenes unfolded at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai as Bengal claimed a tense one-wicket win over Tamil Nadu to claim six points, taking their tally to 12 points and reaching the second spot in the points tally after round four of Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season.
Bengal who started at the day at 87/2 chasing 216 to win, lost skipper Manoj Tiwary for 18 early in the day to T Natarajan. The other overnight batsman Aamir Gani also departed for to Natarajan two overs later after scoring 25. From 121/4, Bengal further slumped to 150/7, as Rahil Shah ran through the lower order removing Anstrup Majumdar (7), Writtick Chatterjee (0) and Sreevats Goswami (9).
Sudip Chatterjee though arrested the slump and partnering Pradipta Pramanik took Bengal within touching distance of the target. But with Chatterjee’s wicket for 40 taken by Shah, the pendulum swung again in Tamil Nadu’s favour. With nine runs to win, Pramanik and Ashok Dinda got together to tie the scores, but Dinda’s was run out by Shah with Tamil Nadu needing one wicket to tie the match and Bengal needing one run to win.
The good thing for Bengal was that the run-out happened at the non-striker’s end and No.11 batsman Ishan Porel was not facing. Pramanik held his nerve to take a single a ball later and remained unbeaten on 25, taking his team to victory.
For Tamil Nadu Shah claimed 5/68 in the second innings to go with his 5/46 in the first. Bengal had conceded the lead to Tamil Nadu when they were bowled out for 189 after Tamil Nadu scored 263.
Bengal did exceedingly well in their second bowling effort to setup the game with Writtick Chatterjee’s 5/22 bundling out Tamil Nadu for 141.
Brief Scores: Bengal 216/9 (Abhishek Raman 53, Sudip Chatterjee 40; Rahil Shah 5/68) & 189 beat Tamil Nadu 263 & 141
