Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Majumdar fronts rearguard act

- Dhiman Sarkar dhiman@htlive.com ■

KOLKATA: Arms spread, Anustup Majumdar smiled before signalling for a drink. A pulled four off Prasidh Krishna had taken him to 103 and slayed the demons off being dismissed on 99 the last time Bengal played at Eden Gardens. Next over, Majumdar hit Abhimanyu Mithun for a six over midwicket and followed that up with a four past cover. After doing it against Hyderabad, Delhi and scoring 157 against Odisha, Bengal’s go-to man in a crisis had delivered again.

With a counter-attacking Shahbaz Ahmed (35; 4x7), Majumdar added 72 for the seventh wicket before he and Akash Deep (44; 3x4; 3x6) put on 103 for the eighth. These partnershi­ps breathed life into an innings Karnataka had choked soon after electing to field in this Ranji Trophy semi-final. Ahmed was dropped on 30 by wicket-keeper S Sharath off K Gowtham and Deep on 37 by Karun Nair who failed to hold on to a stiff chance at cover when Krishna was bowling. Bengal scored 107 runs in the post-lunch session and 102 after tea.

Majumdar had walked in before the first session was over and at stumps on Saturday was unconquere­d on 120 (173b; 251m; 18x4; 1x6) with Bengal on 275/9. Ishan Porel was batting on zero.

“Shahbaz and Akash Deep changed the equation. Shahbaz is an attacking player and when he hit some good balls for boundaries, it helped me too as they started bowling back of length. The innings against Odisha was crucial but given the occasion and the bowling attack, I would rate this better,” said Majumdar, 35, who quit a job in the Railways to play for Bengal.

Majumdar drove well, wasn’t afraid to pull or hook and was comfortabl­e playing off his hips. Till he was sure that Deep could offer a straight bat, Majumdar also farmed the strike. He got to his 50 with a backfoot punch off Gowtham and moved into the 90s with a cover-driven four off Krishna.

At 66/5, lunch wouldn’t go down well with the batting team but this has been normal service for Bengal. In 15 innings prior before Saturday, they have had two opening partnershi­ps over 50 both in the second innings.

Abhishek Raman went first, edging an attempted cover-drive off Mithun (3/65) to Sharath and Bengal hadn’t opened scoring then. The abridged version of the Decision Review System (DRS) was called to use for the first of the four times in the day in third over with Karnataka successful in pleading their case.

Skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran also fell to a poor shot, trying to flick an overpitche­d Krishna (2/62) delivery and scooping to K Gowtham at square-leg. Despite not making the batsmen play enough, Karnataka had Bengal on 17/2. Promoted above Manoj Tiwary, Arnab Nandi and Sudip Chatterjee stopped the haemorrhag­e. Nandi hit off-spinner Gowtham for two boundaries in his first over but fell to the first ball off Mithun’s second spell, Sharath flying to his left to catch the inside edge. Tiwary too stuck into Gowtham (2/88) but gifted his wicket trying a loft too many. And after gritting it through the difficult phase, Chatterjee was trapped leg-before by an incoming delivery from the impressive Ronit More (2/45) who also dismissed Shreevats Goswami three balls later. 67/6.

Not for the first time it was left to Ahmed and Majumdar to rescue Bengal. It took the delivery of the day from Mithun to prise out Ahmed --- the ball straighten­ing after pitching and clipping offstump. By the time Deep was trapped leg-before by Gowtham, Bengal had reached 258.

SAURASHTRA 217/5 ON DAY 1 VS GUJARAT

RAJKOT: Led by Arzan Nagwaswall­a’ three wickets, Gujarat bowlers produced a discipline­d show and restricted Saurashtra to 217 for five on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy semifinal here on Saturday.

For the hosts, only Sheldon Jackson (69 not out) was able to convert his start at the SCA stadium.

Initially, it seemed Gujarat skipper Parthiv Patel’s decision to put Saurashtra in backfired, but the bowlers made a splendid comeback and pegged the hosts back on two occasions.

Saurashtra openers Harvik Desai (35) and Kishan Parmar (37) gave the hosts a sedate start and negated the early challenge well, especially the questions posed by medium pacer Chitan Gaja (0-42).

Right after tea, Nagwaswall­a grabbed two wickets in two balls to leave Saurashtra tottering at 162 for five. The fall of wickets did not bother Jackson, who stood firm at the other end. He hammered nine boundaries and two towering sixes in his unbeaten knock. He also found an able allay in Chirag Jani (16 not out) as the two rebuilt the innings with their unbroken 55-run stand.

 ?? SAMIR JANA/HT ?? ■
Bengal’s Anustup Majumder celebrates his ton vs Karnataka on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy semi in Kolkata on Saturday.
SAMIR JANA/HT ■ Bengal’s Anustup Majumder celebrates his ton vs Karnataka on Day 1 of their Ranji Trophy semi in Kolkata on Saturday.

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