Bengal fall just short of their target

Bengal came close to snatching an improbable win against Delhi on the last day of the Ranji Trophy Super League tie against Delhi at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.

Needing 124 runs for an win in 13 overs, Bengal finally managed to get 82 for four wickets when the captains decided to call off play. Earlier, Delhi, in the face of some inspired bowling by Saurav Ganguly and Utpal Chatterjee, scored 261 in their second innings. Ganguly finished with five wickets and Chatterjee with four. But sans the two, the Bengal bowling looked ordinary. Had the others backed up Ganguly and Chatterjee to even some extent, Bengal would have finished with eight points. As it is, they had five for the first innings lead while Delhi finished with three.

Delhi were saved by a eighth wicket stand between Rahul Sanghvi and Nikhil Chopra. They added 59 runs, but more importantly they made the runs off 160 balls. Sanghvi however had two lives. When on seven, Saba Karim dropped a difficult chance of the bowling of Laxmi Ratan Shukla and then four runs later he was dropped by Chatterjee at point. The hapless bowler again was Shukla.

The match once more established Ganguly's prowess as captain. He led from the front and struck vital blows at the right moment to have Delhi under pressure. He changed his bowlers at regular intervals. The only blemish on his part was to use leg spinner Wrichik Mazumdar for only one over during the day. The manner in which he once more outwitted the rival captain Ajay Sharma was great to watch. Sharma, a compulsive puller and hooker, had fallen to Ganguly in the first innings in the square leg trap. This time, the moment, Sharma walked in, Ganguly had a man two-thirds of the way to the fence. However, with Sharma expecting a bouncer, Ganguly bowled him the perfect outswinger. Sharma, rooted to the backfoot, played away from his body, to be caught behind.

Then again, while chasing, Ganguly came out to open the innings. Such committment, is unusual amongst the current National players these days. He failed in his attempt, but his positive approach was enough to draw 15,000 spectators to watch a Ranji Trophy game.

At lunch, Delhi were 144 for five and Bengal were smelling a victory. But then Chopra and Sanghvi and later a last wicket stand between Robin Singh (jr) and Mithun Minhas, thwarted their attempts. Delhi were indebted to Mithun Minhas (46, 75m, 57b, 5x4, 1x6), Nikhil Chopra (39, 86m, 76b, 5x4) and Sanghvi 20 (100m, 64b, 3x4) for saving the match.

An asking rate of virtually 10 an over was always going to be difficult. And once, Ganguly left, bowled by Sanjay Gill for 17, the result was a foregone conclusion. Devang Gandhi tried his best. However, he was out to a brilliant one handed catch by Akash Chopra at long on of Gill for 28 of 27 balls.