Eyeing their third Ranji Trophy title in their 12th appearance in the finals, Bengal take on a resurgent Uttar Pradesh tomorrow at Lucknow

Jamie Alter28-Jan-2006

Five wickets and a fine hundred from Sourav Ganguly lit up Bengal’s Ranji Trophy opener © Getty Images

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Bengal’s Ranji Trophy opener will be remembered most for the hype surrounding the presence of Sourav Ganguly, recently dropped from India’s one-day international side and determined to prove his fitness and form. Those that turned up at the Nehru Stadium in Pune witnessed Ganguly bag a five-wicket haul that help dismiss Maharashtra for 350 and then score a fine 159 to give Bengal a 28-run first-innings lead. In Maharashtra’s second innings, Saurashish Lahiri, the young and very talented offspinner, took career-best figures of 7 for 93 and dismissed them for 249 before Bengal batted out the remaining 39 overs of the final day to finish on 93 for 1, content on securing a vital two points thanks to Ganguly’s hundred.
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Bengal’s first win of the season was a low-scoring affair dominated by the bowlers. Delhi, chose to bat and were bowled out for just 148 with Shib Paul, the promising opening bowler, taking 6 for 25 from 19 overs of nagging medium pace. Bengal too struggled for runs as Chaitanya Nanda turned it on with 6 for 67, but a dogged fifty from Rohan Gavaskar and 45 from Manoj Tiwary took them to 211 and secured crucial first-innings lead points. On the third day, however, Delhi really came a cropper as Lahiri opened the bowling and once again proved why he is a talent to watch out for by taking 5 for 57 to dismiss them for 131 and set Bengal up for an easy 10-wicket victory.
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It was a drawn match at the Wankhede Stadium but Bengal conceded first-innings lead points to Mumbai after being bowled out for 171, with Lahiri top-scoring with 49 from No.3. Five wickets from Ashok Dinda, the right-arm medium pacer, could not stop Amol Muzumdar from hitting a fine hundred as Mumbai made 244, but in their second innings Bengal’s strong batting line-up finally stood up. Gavaskar led the way with 154 – he would go on to become Bengal’s highest run-scorer this season – and Arindam Das scored the first of his four fifties to take their side to 382, despite a superb 7 for 114 from Nilesh Kulkarni, the veteran Mumbai spinner and former India bowler.

Dedication and hard work saw Shib Paul reap 32 wickets this season, including a superb 6 for 25 in Bengal’s maiden win © Getty Images

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In another drawn match, Bengal clinched the first-inning points against Karnataka at Mysore thanks to fifties from Arindam Das and Gavaskar that took them to 335 before Lahiri stepped up again with a six-wicket haul to bowl out Karnataka for 292. Bengal batted out the final day to finish on 286 for 7, with Tiwary and Laxmi Ratan Shukla scoring fifties, as they reduced the gap between themselves and Mumbai, atop the Elite Group A.
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Bat dominated ball for the better part of four days as Bengal and Gujarat batted just once without being dismissed on a docile Surat pitch. Led by Dasgupta’s stoic 143 and fifties from Arindam Das and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Bengal racked up 462 for 9. Gujarat hit back with 370 for 9, with only Paul and Lahiri extracting any assistance from the lifeless pitch. There were, obviously, no points for either side.
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The match gathered much attention because Ganguly – who had copped flak from Kiran More, the chairman of selectors, for skipping the match against Gujarat – was requested by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to play. The highlight of Bengal’s whopping loss to Tamil Nadu at Kolkata was that Ganguly was not allowed to bowl after being repeatedly warned for running on the protected area of the pitch. In response to TN’s first-innings 218, Bengal were dismissed for 145 with Ganguly top-scoring with 59. Bengal’s bowlers then took a pasting as Hemang Badani and Sridharam Sriram took TN to 432 for 7 before Rajamani Jesuraj made it 11 wickets in the match to dismiss the hosts for 274. Ganguly again top-scored with 88 and departed for Pakistan having satisfied the BCCI on some level.

Deep Dasgupta’s second hundred of the season enabled Bengal to outbat Baroda and clinch a place in the finals © Getty Images

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Bengal progressed to the semi-finals with a five-wicket win over Railways at Kolkata saw. Ranadeb Bose, who had had an indifferent season, came to the fore with a five-wicket haul to dismiss Railways for 259 and fifties from Arindam Das and Jhunjhunwala then gave Bengal the first-innings lead. Railways – riding on a hundred from Amit Pagnis – declared their second innings on 321 for 6 but Bengal proved more than capable of overhauling this, Jhunjhunwala hitting a thrilling maiden first-class hundred to take his side to an outright victory.
ScorecardIn this batting fest at the Eden Gardens, Bengal drew with Baroda and made their way into the Ranji Trophy final for the first time since the 1993-94 season. Paul took a five-for and restricted Baroda to 241 before Bengal – despite losing Gavaskar to fever – batted for over three days and posted a mammoth 617 to secure the essential first-inning points. Subhomoy Das, Dasgupta and Shukla all scored hundreds, with Dasgupta and Shukla adding a record 314 for the sixth wicket, before a face-saving hundred from Connor Williams delayed the inevitable.