Bengal have a mountain to climb , Sports - City - Kolkata Mirror,Kolkata Mirror

By Arup Chatterjee

Posted On Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 04:41:52 PM

Pratik Mehta (left) and Jobanputra walk off the field after Saurashtra’s declaration on Day 2

Kolkata: Bengal’s mammoth chase for a first-innings lead in their Ranji Trophy tie against Saurashtra, and the valuable three points that come with it, made a wobbly start in fading light at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.

The visitors, overnight 372 for three, carried their innings deep into the post-tea session of the second day before letting go at 650 for 9. The hosts were an uneasy 27 for 1 when stumps were drawn prematurely for the second day in succession because of poor light in this Elite Group B tie.

Rohan Banerjee, who had scored a century against Karnataka last week, is back in the pavilion while Arindam Das and new man Deep Dasgupta survived some anxious moments.

While the hosts may have conceded ground to the opposition, the next couple of days provides a wonderful opportunity for their much-vaunted batting line-up to show some character.

For Bengal, the day had begun on a more positive note than it did on Tuesday, when they toiled without success in the first session and it set the tone for the rest of the day. Ranadeb Bose and Ashok Dinda managed to discard much of the waywardness of the opening morning and were soon rewarded. Saurashtra’s top guns Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja were silenced within the first half-an-hour.

Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary trying to calm down a despairing Ashok Dinda after conceding another boundary

Pujara, whose 68 on Monday had come riding on ominous fluency, was done in when Bose brought back one sharply from outside off, the ball going on to hit the stumps off the flap of his right pad. The big-scoring Pujara, who came back from a long injury lay-off to slam a double-century in their last match, came back with 84 this time. Soon Dinda, his penchant for hit-the-deck stuff very much in evidence, forced Jadeja into a hurried hook with one that climbed on the southpaw quicker than he expected and the top-edge had Bose gobbling it up at deep fine-leg.

The fall of two valuable wickets in quick succession opened up a nice window of opportunity but it was soon being bolted shut by veteran Sitanshu Kotak, Pratik Mehta and the rest of the lower middle-order. Meaty partnerships had the misery piling on Bengal.

Kotak, one of the three centurions of Saurashtra’s previous match, gifted his wicket when he chased one from Sourashis Lahiri way outside off stump, but he had 44 against his name by then. Mehta helped himself to 73 while Rakesh Druv and Sandip Jobanputra came away with useful knocks of 42 and 46. Even No. 10 Sandip Maniar contributed with a quickfire 37 that had five boundaries and a couple of sixes.

Under the circumstances, it is the sort of performance that skipper Manoj Tiwary will be expecting from the Bengal tailenders, who have floundered so far this season. He will be keeping his fingers crossed on Sourav Ganguly too after the former India skipper missed the first hour on Wednesday because of back spasm.

Jobanputra rocked the Bengal reply, the left-arm mediumpacer having one curl away from the left-handed Banerjee to catch the outer edge. Wicketkeeper Sagar Jogyani dived left to scoop up the catch, umpire K Srinath upholding the appeal only after consulting his colleague Samir Bandekar. The Bengal camp claimed that footage captured by their video analyst clearly shows that the ball had hit the turf before the Saurashtra wicketkeeper gathered. But, then, that is all behind them. In front is a mountain that has to be climbed. (TNN)