Bengal march into Ranji Trophy semifinals
Bengal marched into the semifinals of the Ranji Trophy after registering a comprehensive innings and 90 runs victory over Andhra here on Tuesday, the foundation of which was laid by Sudip Kumar Gharami’s monumental 299. Resuming their second innings on 64 for three on Day 5, the contest was as good as over for Andhra after they conceded a massive first-innings lead of 334 runs on the fourth and penultimate day.
Bengal will now take on Jammu and Kashmir in the semi-final from February 15, while Karnataka and Uttarakhand face off in the other last four clash. On the final day’s play, Andhra hoped to avoid an outright defeat but left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed struck some vital blows on a fifth day pitch to script a big win for Bengal.
Shahbaz returned impressive figures of 4/72, while Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal picked up two wickets. There was a wicket each for Akash Deep, Sumanta Gupta and Anustup Majumdar. Out-of-favour India seamer Mohammed Shami, who sizzled with the bat in Bengal’s huge first-innings total of 629, bowled only three overs when Andhra batted for the second time in the match.
Nitish Kumar Reddy was the only silver lining for Andhra as the India all-rounder batted resolutely to make 90 off 144 balls with seven fours and two sixes. Needing 270 runs to make Bengal bat again, Andhra required a partnership between Reddy and Ricky Bhui (30) but the skipper was dismissed by Shahbaz after he could add just 12 runs to his overnight score. Soon Shahbaz took the wicket of Saurabh Kumar and then removed Reddy to finish with fine figures.
Tripurana Vijay (46) and Kalidindi Raju (25) got some runs under their belt but all they could do was delay the inevitable before Gupta picked up the wicket of Vijay to seal the match for his team. Wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat did not bat because of an injury.
