Cashing in: Sudip made the most of the opportunity to score a hundred.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
Bengal stepped off the gas to collect three points with a draw against Karnataka in their Elite-C Ranji Trophy encounter at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday.
Bengal took no chances on the final day, batting beyond lunch to leave Karnataka with an impossible target of 364. Karnataka lost openers Mayank Agarwal and Kishan Bedare inside the first six overs, before R. Smaran (35 not out), Shreyas Gopal (32) and Manish Pandey (30 not out) took the home team to safe waters.
Karnataka, with nine points from four matches, slipped out of the top two in the Elite-C points table. Bengal is just below Karnataka with eight points from four outings.
Resuming on 127 for three, Bengal did not see merit in forcing a win. Sudip Kumar (101 n.o., 193b, 12×4, 2×6) recorded his fifth First Class century.
Pacer Vidyadhar Patil kept a probing line to prise out Shahbaz Ahmed and Avilin Ghosh, but a confident knock from Wriddhiman Saha (63 n.o., 70b, 7×4, 1×6) left no room for a Karnataka comeback.
Bengal declared on 283 for five soon after Sudip reached his hundred. With less than two sessions of play remaining, a draw was a foregone conclusion.
Karnataka captain Mayank Agarwal conceded that the team had been affected by a “few soft dismissals”, and that the batters were keen to take corrective action.
Karnataka has also been forced to contend with the absence of regulars like K.L. Rahul, V. Vyshak and Devdutt Padikkal, who are away on international duty.
“We want our players to play a higher grade of cricket. We want to keep fighting and find ways to win games for Karnataka. If we get a win in the next game, then suddenly things look different,” Mayank said.
Karnataka next takes on Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow on November 13. Bengal faces Madhya Pradesh at Indore.
The scores:
Bengal — 1st innings: 301.
Karnataka — 1st innings: 221.
Bengal — 2nd innings: Shuvam Dey c Sateri b Abhilash 30, Sudip Chatterjee c Sateri b Koushik 48, Sudip Kumar (not out) 101, Anustup Majumdar b Vidyadhar 5, Shahbaz Ahmed c Smaran b Vidyadhar 18, Avilin Ghosh c Shreyas b Vidyadhar 5, Wriddhiman Saha (not out) 63; Extras (b-2, lb-7, nb-4): 13; Total (for five wkts. decl. in 81.4 overs): 283.
Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-97, 3-106, 4-142, 5-160.
Karnataka bowling: Koushik 23-9-43-1, Abhilash 22-1-87-1, Vidyadhar 19.4-5-53-3, Shreyas 6-1-47-0, Hardik 11-0-44-0.
Karnataka — 2nd innings: Mayank Agarwal c Majumdar b Sindhu 5, Kishan Bedare (concussion substitute) c (sub) Gandhi b Sindhu 5, R. Smaran (not out) 35, Shreyas Gopal lbw b Sindhu 32, Manish Pandey (not out) 30; Extras (lb-1, nb-2): 3; Total (for three wkts. in 28 overs): 110.
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-12, 3-66.
Bengal bowling: Porel 2.4-1-9-0, Sindhu 8-1-27-3, Shahbaz 10.2-0-50-0, Gani 6-0-22-1, Majumdar 1-0-2-0.
Published – November 10, 2024 01:02 am IST
