Chatterjee, Saha defy Karnataka
A defiant Sudip Chatterjee threw a spanner into the works for Karnataka as he struck an impressive 351ball 145 to steer Bengal to 312/ 9 in 88 overs at stumps on Day One of their Group A Ranji Trophy encounter at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.
The defending champions started and finished with a flourish but had a stubborn Chatterjee, who struck 16 fours during his more than six- hour stay at the centre, to deal with for much of the day.
Wriddhiman Saha also played a key role in guiding the visitors’ to a respectable total with a well crafted 90 ( 132b, 10x4, 1x6) as their 173run ( 289b) fifth wicket partnership stymied Karnataka’s hopes of an early rout.
For the hosts, Vinay Kumar ( 3/ 80) and HS Sharath ( 3/ 47) came away with the spoils.
In Delhi, Ishant Sharma returned to competitive cricket with an impressive effort of 3/ 26 as Delhi restricted Vidarbha to 222/ 6 in their Group A match. Ishant worked up good pace and bounce from the Ferozshah Kotla strip after Gautam Gambhir opted to field.
The lanky speedster bowled in four short spells and got wickets in three of those spells.
For Vidarbha, Faiz Fazal ( 55) and Subramanium Badrinath ( 44) added 89 runs for the third wicket in 38.4 overs.
In Indore, Tamil Nadu made a decent start reaching 225/ 5 in their first innings against hosts Madhya Pradesh at stumps on the opening day of their Group B game.
Sent in to bat, Tamil Nadu did not have the best of starts as they lost opener K. Bharath Shankar ( 1) early.
Tamil Nadu skipper Abhinav Mukund ( 24) and Baba Aparajith ( 56) then added 63 runs for the second wicket before the former departed.
Group A: Rajasthan 147/ 5 ( Saxena 42) vs Assam; Vidarbha 222/ 6 ( Badrinath 44, Fazal 55, Ishant 3/ 26) vs Delhi; Bengal 312/ 9 ( Saha 90, Chatterjee 145, 3/ 80) vs Karnataka. Maharashtra 231/ 5 ( Khadiwale 74, Bawne 60, Samantray 3/ 31) vs Odisha. Group B: Gujarat 250/ 5 ( Parthiv 122, Vijay Kumar 3/ 61) vs Andhra. Railways 166 ( Pandya 5/ 61) vs Baroda 118/ 1 ( Devdhar 69*); Tamil Nadu 225/ 5 ( Aparajith 56, Prasanna 51*) vs Madhya Pradesh. Punjab 154 ( Thakur 4/ 47, Sandhu 4/ 31) vs Mumbai 103/ 2 ( Iyer 61*)