da pinup bet： Bengal managed to get the vital first innings lead in their RanjiTrophy Super League encounter against Delhi at the Eden Gardens onFriday
Sakyasen Mittra18-Feb-2000Bengal managed to get the vital first innings lead in their RanjiTrophy Super League encounter against Delhi at the Eden Gardens onFriday. On a day when overnight rain curtailed play by 104 minutes,Bengal, riding on a solid 90 from Srikant Kalyani and usefulcontributions from the middle order, declared at 374 for eightwickets, 44 minutes after tea. Delhi were 30 for no loss when play wascalled off. They need another 104 runs to avoid an innings defeat.Bengal’s strategy was quite simple on Friday. While Kalyani was tohold one end up, the others could go for runs from the other. That isexactly the way Saba Karim, Utpal Chatterjee, Wrichik Mazumdar andLaxmi Ratan Shukla played. Karim blazed his way to 46 before hitting afull toss from off spinner Virendra Shewag to cover. However, Bengalhad already managed to take the lead before his dismissal. He hadadded 70 runs with Kalyani for the fifth wicket.In walked Utpal Chatterjee and from the start, he was severe on hiscounterpart Rahul Sanghvi in the Delhi side. Utpal got 24 in 35 ballshitting Sanghvi for a six and a four in one over. Then Mazumdar got 34in 46 balls. He hit Nikhil Chopra for a lovely six over long on andadded 59 runs for the seventh wicket in 58 minutes. Shukla who came innext also was very aggresive against the second new ball taken after95 overs. He hit Sanjay Gill over midwicket for a huge six before theinnings was declared after Kalyani’s dismissal.The former Maharashtra Ranji Trophy captain, who has settled down inBengal, once more showed why he is technically considered a very soundbatsman. He rotated the strike beautifully and despatched the loosedeliveries for boundaries. His 200 ball innings with six boundariesdid not really have any flaws. He perished simply because the skipperasked him to go for runs. He tried to hit Gill out of the ground andended in skying it to Akash Malhotra in the covers.In the remaining 12 overs, Ashu Dani survived two confident leg beforeappeals of Ganguly. Also, Akash Chopra was dropped by Kalyani at sillypoint of Chatterjee. The fate of this match now is in the hands of thethree Bengal spinners Chatterjee, Mazumdar and Sourashis Lahiri.