Bengal edge TN in a thriller
Opener Vijay says playing in Australia suits his game
Chennai, Dec. 1: Bengal snatched an exciting onewicket win against Tamil Nadu to earn six points in a Ranji Trophy Group 'B' match at the M A Chidambaram stadium here on Saturday. Bengal moved to 12 points and second spot in the points table with its first win of the season.
Requiring 216 for victory, the visitors scraped home in a tense finish as Tamil Nadu spinner Rahil S Shah came up with another five-wicket haul to keep the team in the hunt. Praditpa Pramanik was the hero for Bengal with a knock of 25 (97 balls, 1X6) as he batted with determination under pressure to guide the team home.
Tamil Nadu mounted pressure on the Bengal batsmen with Shah being the dangerman but they came through showing skills to play on a wearing wicket. The home side began the day looking for wickets and earned early success when the Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary, the key man in the chase, fell leg-before wicket to T Natarajan for 25.
It was anyone's game as Bengal needed over 100 runs to secure a win. Sudip Chaterjee (40) brought his experience to the fore and scored important runs as the team inched forward.
Tamil Nadu fought back by taking a clutch of wickets as Shah removed Anustup Majumdar, Writtick Bijoy Chatterjee and Shreevats Goswami to leave Bengal tottering at 150 for 7. Sudip Chatterjee and Pramanik added 55 runs a little over
25 overs, keeping the attack-minded TN bowlers at bay, bring Bengal closer.
Chatterjee was stumped by N Jagadeesan with Bengal nine runs short of the target to produce more drama. Ashoke Dinda (1) was run out by Shah with two runs to get.
However, Pramanik and
No.11 batsman Ishan Porel scampered through a leg-bye to seal a memorable victory, the first of the season for Bengal. Bengal opener Abhishek to Kumar Raman was named man of the match for his knocks of 98 and 53 on a tough wicket . Gujarat thrash
Mumbai Skipper Priyank Panchal stuck a blistering hundred as Gujarat stunned hosts Mumbai by nine wickets in their Elite Group A match. Panchal’s unbeaten 112 off 109 balls helped Gujarat overhaul the 204-run target in just
41.5 overs and raced to victory despite conceding the first innings lead to the 41-time champions on the last day of the fourday game at the Wankhede Stadium. The
28-year-old Panchal and Kathan Patel (55 in 85 balls) laid the foundation for their come-frombehind win with a 128-run stand for the opening wicket. Panchal hammered 11 fours and 3 sixes in his match-winning knock. After Kathan Patel fell, Bhargav Merai (34 not out in 57 balls) and Panchal took the side home without much fuss. With this win, Gujarat became the first side to beat domestic giants Mumbai outright on four occasions. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have won on 3 occasions each. Earlier, Mumbai resumed the day at 157 for 7 but could add only 30 more runs to their tally. — PTI GROUP ‘A’: At Mumbai: Mumbai 297 & 187 (Aditya Tare 59, Shivam Dubey 55, Chintan Gaja 4/57) lost to Gujarat 281 & 206/1 (Priyank Panchal 112*, Kathan Patel
55). At Raipur: Chhattisgarh
232 & 143 (Lalit Yadav 7/56) lost to Vidarbha 332/6 decl. &
46 for no loss. At Rajkot: Saurashtra 521 vs Baroda
533/9 (Kedar Devdhar 224, Vishnu Solanki 116, Hardik Rathod 3/98). At Mysuru: Maharashtra 113 & 256 lost to Karnataka 186 & 184/3 (Devdutt Padikkal 77, Dega Nischal 61, Satyajeet Bachhav
2/56).
GROUP ‘B’: At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 263 & 141 lost to Bengal
189 and 216/9 in 82.5 overs (Abhishek Kumar Raman 53, Sudip Chatterjee 40, Pradipta Pramanik 25*, Rahil Shah
5/68). At T’puram: Kerala 62 & 455 in 121.1 overs (Sachin Baby 143, Vishnu Vinod 193*, Basil Thampi 57) lost to Madhya Pradesh 328 in 120 overs (Rajat Patidar 73, Naman Ojha 79, Jalaj Saxena
4/120) & 194/5 in 62 overs (Rajat Patidar 77, Shubham Sharma 48*).
At Hyderabad: Himachal Pradesh 351 & 97 in 45.2 overs (Ravi Kiran 4/34, Tanay Thyagarajan 3/9) lost to Hyderabad 352 in 130.5 overs (Akshat Reddy 99, T Ravi Teja
75, Arpit Gulera 3 for 64) & 97 for no loss in 28.2 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 48*). GROUP ‘C’: At Kanpur: Rajasthan 311 & 232 (A. Gautam 86, S. Kumar 6/77) drew with UP 214 & 116/2 (Mohammed Saif 58, Shivam Chaudhary 36). At Palam: Jammu & Kashmir 95 & 261 vs Services 252 & 107/5 (Rajat Paliwal 43*, Aanshul Gupta 21, Parvez Rasool 2/18).