Ranji Trophy final, BEN vs SAU Day 1: Unadkat, Sakariya restrict Bengal to 174 at their Fortress Eden Garden
Ranji Trophy final: After a splendid season, Bengal and Saurashtra find themselves on the cusp of winning the Ranji Trophy title on Thursday, Bengal hosts Saurashtra at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata for the Ranji final.
Saurashtra had won the toss and opted to bowl. They even bowled out Bengal with a score of 174. Saurashtra then managed to put 81 runs on board at the loss of two wickets. They are trailing behind by 93 runs at the end of day 1.
Shahbaz, Porell score fifties after gigantic collapse
Bengal’s batting capitulation started early when Saurashtra captain Unadkat, released from India’s Test squad to play in the final, struck in the first over with an inswinger that dismissed Abhimanyu Easwaran with a bat-pad catch to short leg.
The other opener, debutant Sumanta Gupta, was out next over to Sakariya off a rising length delivery that popped to the slip cordon. Two balls later, Bengal were 2 for 3 in the first ten balls of the match, when No. 3 Sudip Kumar Gharami left a beautiful Sakariya delivery only to see it swing back in and rattle his stumps.
Unadkat then switched his angle to around the wicket, and was rewarded with Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary’s wicket – edged to gully for 7. Jani soon dismissed Anustup Majumdar caught-behind for 16, while allrounder Akash Ghatak found a short ball from Sakariya too hot to handle. At 65 for 6, Bengal and their sizeable home crowd were deflated.
But allrounder Shahbaz Ahmed and wicketkeeper-batter Abishek Porel staged a fightback, beginning before lunch and very nearly lasting till tea. Their 101-run stand for the seventh wicket started with caution early on, but as the pitch flattened out, both batters found scoring easier. After lunch, they found boundaries on both sides of the wicket to make rapid progress.
Unadkat led Saurashtra’s balling attack got the best of hosts
However, that wasn’t to be as Saurashtra ran through the lower order inside 15 minutes after tea. Akash Deep became Jadeja’s second victim, Porel was out for 50 to Jani, and Mukesh Kumar fell to Unadkat.
Saurashtra’s reply began with opener Harvik Desai (38*) counterattacking. He raced to 29 off 28 balls, even as his opening partner Jai Gohil fell cheaply to Akash. Vishvaraj Jadeja, the No. 3, also played positive shots to score 25 with five boundaries, before falling to Mukesh.
But those quick runs had lifted Saurashtra to 73 for 2 by then. The night-watcher Sakariya, the pick of the Saurashtra bowlers in the morning with 3 for 33, survived nine deliveries in Desai’s company, and when bad light stopped play, the visitors left the field much happier than their counterparts, only 93 runs away from Bengal’s first-innings total.
Making a comeback after being released from the Test side, Unadkat (3/44) produced a terrific opening spell of 5-2-7-2, while Sakariya (3/33) made the ball talk in initially to reduce Bengal to 17 for 4 inside 31 minutes.
With this, Unadkat becomes first Saurashtra bowler to have completed 300 wickets in Ranji trophy.
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