Tiwary, Chatterjee wear down Mumbai attack

December 01, 2016 06:05 pm | Updated December 03, 2016 04:14 pm IST - Nagpur:

A determined Bengal competed against Mumbai with a fixity of purpose and has turned this crucial Group-A Ranji Trophy league match on its head.

The story of the third day’s play was all about a resolute Manoj Tiwary (169, 288b, 22x4, 1x6) and Sudip Chatterjee (130, 304b, 18x4) wearing down the Mumbai seam bowling, and showing a fine balance between defence and attack to take their fourth-wicket stand to 271 runs.

Full marks to Tiwary and Chatterjee who not only deprived Mumbai a breakthrough for seven hours and four minutes, but has also turned the heat on it by posting 433 for eight in the second innings.

Bengal was up by 303 runs when the failing light brought an end to the action with 22 overs remaining to be bowled.

Bengal can mount pressure on Mumbai with a substantial fourth innings target.

There can be questions asked of Tiwary of his choice to bat at No. 5, and not at No. 3 where Sayan Shekhar Mondal failed to deliver. Nonetheless the option worked well for Bengal as he faced the Mumbai attack once he took heavy toll of seamer Dhawal Kulkarni at the start of his innings. Tiwary has been a prolific run-getter against Mumbai.

In the absence of a quality spinner, Mumbai suffered and the seamers Shardul Thakur, Kulkarni, Tushar Deshpande and Abhishek Nayar had to take heavy punishment.

Bengal added 90 runs in 31 overs in the first session, and 80 runs in 23 overs in the second. But Mumbai picked up three wickets in the fourth hour.

Medium pacer Nayar, known to provide breakthroughs, first won a leg before decision against Chatterjee, that signalled the fall of the first Bengal wicket in seven hours, and thereafter trapped left-hander Agniv Pan plumb in front.

An accurate throw from the fence by Thakur to the wicketkeeper Aditya Tare that caught Tiwary short of his ground. The referral confirmed his dismissal.

Tiwary had played the captain’s knock and with a gutsy Chatterjee had baulked Mumbai for 530 balls and that in itself is the terrific tale of the match that had seemed all over bar the shouting for Bengal after it had capitulated for 99 on the first day.

The scores:

Bengal — Ist innings: 99.

Mumbai — Ist innings: 229.

Bengal — 2nd innings: Abhishek Raman run out 29, Abhimanyu Easwaran c Suryakumar Yadav b Dhawal Kulkarni 5, Sayan Shekhar Mandal c Tare b Dhawal Kulkarni 0, Sudip Chatterjee lbw b Abhishek Nayar 130, Manoj Tiwary run out 169, Agniv Pan lbw b Abhishek Nayar 4, Shreevats Goswami c Dabholkar b Dhawal Kulkarni 11, Ashoke Dinda b Dhawal Kulkarni 19, Pragyan Ojha (batting) 30, Amit Kuila (batting) 18; Extras (b-2, lb-8, nb-6, w-2): 18; Total (for eight wkts. in 131 overs): 433.

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-17, 3-56, 4-327, 5-354, 6-356, 7-379, 8-390.

Mumbai bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 32-7-108-4, Shardul Thakur 29-5-97-0, Abhishek Nayar 25-3-70-2, Tushar Deshpande 20-0-74-0, Jay Bista 6-2-23-0, Vishal Dabholkar 7-0-39-0, Shubham Ranjane 12-7-12-0.

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