Ranji Trophy: Bengal soar as Young Turks fire

KOLKATA: The first step in pursuit of success is grabbing opportunities. There are a number of examples of that in the Bengal Ranji team this year. What is even more encouraging is the fact that the youngsters have stood up to the challenge to help Bengal make the semi-finals after a four-year gap. These young Turks have done enough to ensure that India stars Mohammad Shami and Wriddhiman Saha - who played three and four matches, respectively, this season - weren't missed.
Left-handed batsman Sudip Chatterjee provided Bengal the right start by hitting back-to-back centuries in the first two matches, against Services and Chhattisgarh. The team missed opener Abhimanyu Easwaran in their second match as he was picked to play for India 'A' against New Zealand 'A', but his replacement Koushik Ghosh put his hand up to hit his maiden first-class hundred on returning to the side after three-and-half years as an opener.
That performance not only helped Ghosh retain his berth in the playing XI for the next match against Himachal Pradesh, he batted at No. 4 ahead of skipper Manoj Tiwary. Ghosh then made a fighting 50 against Vidarbha in Kalyani, but was ruled out of the crucial Punjab match as he was diagnosed with dengue.
In Amritsar, it was Easwaran and Abhishek Raman's turn to dazzle as they added 222 - the best opening stand of the season with both youngsters scoring centuries. They set the platform for an innings win which helped Bengal pocket seven points and all but them of a knockout berth.
Bengal's last league match, against Goa at Eden Gardens, saw Writtick Chatterjee score his maiden first-class century on returning to the team four seasons after making his Ranji debut. He went one better in the quarterfinal, smashing a double hundred against Gujarat in what was only his sixth first-class game.
And how can one ignore the contribution of Anushtup Majumdar? He may not be a spring chicken, but the right-hander made a strong statement on returning to the Bengal squad after playing two seasons for Railways. Anushtup not only rescued the team along with Shreevats Goswami when they were struggling against Goa, he went on to hit centuries in both innings of that match.
Easwaran did an encore in the quarterfinal, scoring two hundreds against Gujarat.
Majumdar (527) apart, openers Easwaran (547) and Raman (587) have aggregated over 500 runs this season. As many as 15 centuries have been scored in seven matches so far.
With so many youngsters sharing the workload with the experienced Anushtup, Bengal no longer have to depend on one or two batsmen to put up a big total. With just two more hurdles to cross, Bengal are serious contenders for the title.