Ranji Trophy: Anmolpreet's unbeaten ton puts Punjab on top

KOLKATA: If Punjab had the upper hand on Day 1, they had almost pocketed their Ranji Trophy match against Bengal on Day 2 at the JU Salt Lake campus ground on Tuesday.
At stumps, the visitors are sitting pretty at 357 for seven thereby enjoying a healthy 170-run lead. Young Shubman Gill continued his good form to take the match away from the hosts as he along with his overnight unbeaten partner Anmolpreet Singh negotiated the tricky first hour of second morning.Gill has a free-flowing style of play that helps him gather runs quite easily. And as the runs started coming the pressure was soon off on the side.
Gill reached his 50 off 70 balls and then survived a run out chance at 67 when he managed to beat a wild throw from Sudip Chatterjee while responding to his partner's call.
Gill finally fell just nine runs short of a well-deserved century when he stepped out to lift pacer Mukesh Kumar over mid-off but got an inside edge to be holed up at widish mid-off by Sudip. Gill's 91 included 11 boundaries. That was the only success Bengal had in the first session of play.
Bengal could have seen the back of Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh also but wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami faltered an easy stumping chance when the batsman missed the line while trying to play left-arm spinner Pradipta Pramanik.
But they did strike hard in the second session by picking up three more wickets.
Mukesh once again provided the breakthrough in his first over after lunch by breaking the 85-run fourth-wicket stand between Anmolpreet and Mandeep. The latter departed for 44 being caught brilliantly by a diving Abhimanyu Easwaran at second slip.
A sizeable crowd that greeted Yuvraj Singh was left disappointed as the left-hander played only four deliveries before being bowled through the gates by Pramanik for one only.
It looked like the hosts are crawling back in the match when Gurkeerat Singh Mann was caught by Ashok Dinda at mid-on trying a big shot off Pramanik.
But wicketkeeper-batsman Gitansh Khera gave good company to Anmolpreet to once again steady the innings.
Anmolpreet played a solid knock taking over the responsibility of building up the innings after the departure of Gill. He mostly played in the 'V' and used his feet well against the spinners. He reached his maiden century this season at the stroke of tea after playing 210 deliveries.
Pramanik had a good second spell where he picked two wickets giving away 10 runs from his five overs.
He claimed Khera (42) after the tea break when the batsman misjudged the turn to be bowled after leaving the delivery.
Vinay Choudhary survived some close calls at the fag-end of the day to remain unbeaten on 10. Anmolpreet too remained there unbeaten on 124 promising to make things more difficult for Bengal on Wednesday.