Sourav Ganguly half-century propels Bengal to 264

Skipper Sourav Ganguly scored his second half-century of the season before retiring due to hamstring injury as Bengal are only 21 runs shy of surpassing Baroda's score of 284 and thereby save the relegation from Elite Group of Ranji Trophy.

 

Vadodara: Dec 22, 2011

 

Skipper Sourav Ganguly scored his second half-century of the season before retiring due to hamstring injury as Bengal are only 21 runs shy of surpassing Baroda’s score of 284 and thereby save the relegation from Elite Group of Ranji Trophy.

 

It was due to former India captain’s knock of 60 (120 balls, 9×4) and his 93-run fifth wicket partnership with comeback man Anushtup Majumdar (71 batting, 152 balls, 10×4) that helped Bengal reach 264 for four at stumps on the second day.

 

Majumdar also added valuable 73 runs for the unbroken sixth-wicket stand with veteran all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla (37 batting, 43 balls, 5×4) after Ganguly left the field at a team total of 191.

 

However no one can take away the fact that Ganguly-Majumdar duo has now almost saved Bengal from the blushes of relegation after they were in a spot of bother at 98 for four with in-form Manoj Tiwary (9) dismissed cheaply.

 

It was certain that law of averages will catch up with Tiwary who has had scores of 132, 267 and 187 in the three earlier matches that he played.

 

It was debutant opener Jayojit Basu (17) who was cleaned up by left-arm seamer Gagandeep Singh in the 12th over. His opening partner Arindam Das (17) failed to get going and his painstaking innings came to an end when he was caught by Rakesh Solanki in the slip region off Firdaus Bhaja’s bowling.

 

Shreevats Goswami (38, 63 balls, 8×4) was in his element as he played and missed but also hit some crisp boundaries in between. His weakness against the moving delivery was again exposed as Gagandeep induced an edge which was pouched by Pinal Shah behind the stumps.

 

At 98, it was Tiwary to turn to return to the pavilion as he was caught in the covers by Anupam Gupta off Gagandeep’s bowling.

 

Ganguly hit his 89th first-class half century today and has now scored 424 runs in the national competition.

 

Credit to Anushtup, who was coming back into the Ranji side after having played his previous first-class match against Railways last season. The youngster who is playing only his 21st first-class match in eight seasons played positively which also gave Ganguly a chance to play more freely.

 

Brief Scores: Baroda 284 (Aditya Waghmode 62, Rakesh Solanki 73, Ashok Dinda 5 for 96, Sourav Ganguly 3 for 1) vs Bengal 264 for 4 (Anushtup Majumdar 71 batting, Sourav Ganguly 60 retd hurt, L Shukla 37 batting)

 

 

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