Ranji Trophy: Punjab hope for an outright win against Bengal

KOLKATA: For the second match in succession, Bengal failed to dislodge the opponents’ last pair that harmed their cause badly. In the last match against Delhi, last-wicket pair of Subodh Bhati and Kulwant Khejroliya collected 80 runs from 64 balls to make things difficult for Bengal. Although the hosts managed to win that tie, the 84-run tenth-wicket stand between Punjab’s Manpreet Gony and Siddharth Kaul almost ended Bengal’s hopes of making the knockouts.
Bengal struck early on the third morning of their Ranji Trophy match against Punjab at JU Salt Lake campus ground on Wednesday as Mukesh Kumar and Ashok Dinda removed overnight unbeaten batsmen Anmolpreet Singh and Vinay Choudhary in quick succession.Mukesh completed a five-wicket haul as he clean bowled Choudhary on the fourth delivery of the morning. Dinda had centurion Anmolpreet caught at second slip by Anushtup Majumder in the very next over.
With one wicket remaining and a lead of 176 runs, it looked like there’s still chance for Bengal to force an outright result.
But things changed dramatically over the next one-and-half hours with Gony hitting everything almost at will.
Gony hit Anushtup for consecutive sixes to reach his 50 off 54 balls. He collected 22 runs off that over hitting one more six and a four.
The medium pacer ultimately remained unbeaten on 69 that came off 67 balls with the help of six fours and five sixes.
The Punjab first innings finally came to end just before the lunch break when Kaul, who was playing the second fiddle, was caught behind by Shreevats Goswami off Pradipta Pramanik, who finished with four for 108.
Enjoying a lead of 260 runs, Gony had opener Abhishek Raman caught behind by Gitansh Khera in the fifth over of their second innings.
Sudip Chatterjee once again fell cheaply when Siddharth Kaul had his stumps dislodged in his first ball after the lunch break.
But skipper Tiwary and Abhimanyu Easwaran prevented any further damages as they build up a 180-run unbeaten third wicket stand to end the day at 218 for two. The opener completed his back-to-back century in the last over of the day to remain undefeated on 100 that came off 157 balls with the help of 11 boundaries.
Tiwary played a solid knock hitting all around the park to remain unbeaten on 90.
With Bengal needing 42 more runs to get past Punjab total, the visitors still had their noose ahead in the match. As Anmolpreet said after the day’s play "We still fancy our chances. If we can wrap up the Bengal innings quickly on the fourth morning, we will go for an outright win."