da wazamba： Sourav Ganguly’s best bowling figures in first class cricket (6/46)helped hostsBengal to restrict Orissa to a score of 251 for eight wickets in the crucialEast Zone Ranji Trophy encounter at the Eden Gardens on Thursday
Sakyasen Mittra28-Dec-2000Sourav Ganguly’s best bowling figures in first class cricket (6/46)helped hostsBengal to restrict Orissa to a score of 251 for eight wickets in the crucialEast Zone Ranji Trophy encounter at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. His earlierbest was 6 for 88 against Delhi last season.The match will decide as to which team will top the group from the zone andGanguly’s bowling has given Bengal the chance of keeping the Orissa score below300. However, if Ganguly walked away with the bowling honours it was Sanjay Raulwho stole the show with the bat. Coming in to bat with the score at 15 for twowickets, Raul scored his eighth Ranji Trophy hundred and 11th in first classcricket. On a pitch, where the ball tended to keep low at times, Raul showedsuperb technique in handling the experienced Ganguly and Utpal Chatterjee tokeep Orissa in the match. His innings was all the more significant because helost Shiv Sundar Das immediately on his arrival at the wicket.It looked like Das had failed to judge the pitch as he elected to bat afterwinning the toss. Orissa were 17 for three in only in the 10th over, Gangulydoing the early damage with some controlled swing bowling. He found an able allyin Shivshankar Paul who bowled with a lot of zest in his first spell. The mannerin which Ganguly dismissed his India compatriot Das was an example as to howwell he used the new ball. It was an outswinger that bounced and flicked Das’glove on its way to Shrikkant Kalyani at second slip. The veteran took a goodcatch diving forward.At this stage with Orissa tottering, Raul and Parida added 126 runs for thefourth wicket to rescue their team. While Raul was compact with drives in frontof the wicket, Parida was in an adventurous mood. Their job was simplifiedbecause there was no bowler to back Ganguly. Off spinner Sourashis Lahiri andleg spinner Wrichik Mazumdar were either wayward or lacked the variation totrouble the batsmen.Raul finally broke the shackles with a lovely straight drive of Ganguly and thenParida smacked Lahiri over mid wicket for a six. However, after scoring a wellcompiled 71 he was unlucky to be given caught behind by Deep Dasgupta offChatterjee. The ball clearly flicked the top of his pad. At this stage Gangulycame back for his fourth spell. With the old ball, he reverse swung it withdeadly effect to send back two more batsmen. First, he had P. Jayachandra bowledwith a yorker and then had the Orissa wicket-keeper Gautam Gopal leg before.Raul now took over. He saw out Ganguly and attacked the other bowlers. A pull ofPaul was the shot of the day. He also played some lovely drives of Lahiri andChatterjee and finally reached his century in the fourth over after tea.Chatterjee dropped one shot and Raul pulled it to the mid wicket fence, to theapplause of the 7,000-odd spectators. Raul was ably supported by S Satpathy andthe two added 76 runs for the seventh wicket.It was the second new ball taken after 81 overs that broke the partnership.Ganguly first induced Satpathy to edge him and Deep Dasgupta behind the stumpscame up with a good catch. Raul hit a spanking cover drive in the next over ofGanguly. However, two deliveries later, he tried to repeat the shot. Theresultant edge was spectacularly snapped up by Dasgupta diving in front of firstslip. His 118 had come in 312 minutes from 218 balls with 16 boundaries. Atclose Debashis Mohanty and Jagannath Das were at the crease.