Railways batsmen produced a much better showing in the second innings to make 314 for nine before declaring, on the penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy match, against Bengal at the Jadavpur University 2nd Campus ground on Monday. Set a target of 372, the host was 13 for one when stumps were drawn
Good stands
Resuming at the overnight score of 20 for no loss, Railways saw a 74-run opening stand between Amit Paunikar (54) and Shivkant Shukla (39). This gave stability to the Railway innings and a 98-run ninth wicket partnership between Mahesh Rawat and Krishnakant Upadhyay spoiled the party for Bengal. Upadhyay made an 83-ball 55, while Rawat remained not out on 75 (128b, 4x7).
Bengal had an unlikely bowling hero with part-time off-spinner Abhishek Jhunjhunwala having a three-wicket haul.
Seamer Shib Shankar Paul, who picked up two wickets, earned an individual landmark by picking up his 200th first-class wicket in the 52nd first-class match.
The Bengal batsmen, who looked tentative in the seven overs they played, will have their task cut out to save the match against a well-balanced attack.
The scores:
Railways — 1st innings: 214.
Bengal — 1st innings: 157.
Railways — 2nd innings: S. Shukla b Singh 39, A. Paunikar lbw b Paul 54, N. Bhile b Jhunjhunwala 26, S. Bangar st Saha b Jhunjhunwala 6, P. Awasthi c & b S. Das 19, M. Rawat (not out) 75, M. Kartik c Jhunjhunwala b Paul 11, K. Sharma c A. Das b Jhunjhunwala 6, A. Singh (run out) 0, K. Upadhyay b Singh 55; Extras (b-9, lb-8, nb-6): 23; Total (for nine wkts. decl. in 88 overs): 314.
Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-130, 3-130, 4-136, 5-173, 6-200, 7-215, 8-216, 9-314.
Bengal bowling: Sarkar 18-3-85-0, Paul 23-7-48-2, Singh 13-0-54-2, S. Das 10-0-33-1, Saxena 10-2-35-0, Jhunjhunwala 14-0-42-3.
Bengal — 2nd innings: R. Banerjee c Rawat b Mali 5, A. Das (batting) 4, S. Chatterjee (batting) 0; Extras (lb-4): 4; Total (for one wkt. in seven overs): 13.
Fall of wicket: 1-5.
Railways bowling: Upadhyay 4-2-2-0, Mali 2-1-4-1, Sharma 1-0-3-0.
Other scores ( Round Nine, Day Three):
Group ‘A’: At Mumbai: Gujarat 244 & 159 for five in 53.5 overs (Parthiv Patel 47) vs. Mumbai 447 in 134.2 overs (Wasim Jaffer 171, Hiken Shah 82, Suryakumar Yadav 42, Abhishek Nayar 72 n.o.)..
At Jaipur: Rajasthan 384 & 103 for two in 35 overs (Vineet Saxena 54 batting) vs. Hyderabad 349 in 96.5 overs (K. Sumanth 43, P. Akshath Reddy 41, Parth Jala 75 n.o., A. Ashish Reddy 62, Rituraj Singh four for 86).
At Rajkot: Saurashtra 242 & 303 for four decl. in 76 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 203 n.o., Aarpit Vasavada 55) vs. Madhya Pradesh 135 & 89 for two in 24 overs (Jalaj Saxena 46 batting).
Group ‘B’:
At Pune: Karnataka 572 for nine decl. vs. Maharashtra 99 in 29.1 overs (Abhimanyu Mithun six for 36, Stuart Binny four for 37) & 315 for two in 74 overs (Harshad Khadiwale 136, Sangram Atitkar 78, Ankit Bawne 80 batting).
At Cuttack: Uttar Pradesh 160 & 111 bt Odisha 127 & 101 in 37.2 overs (Imtiaz Ahmed five for 29). Points: UP 6 (33), Odisha 0 (16).
At Chennai: Tamil Nadu 571 for six decl. in 170.3 overs (Abhinav Mukund 60, Baba Aparajith 42, K.B. Arun Karthick 54, K. Dinesh Karthik 187, Vijay Shankar 100 n.o., V. Yomahesh 57 n.o.) vs. Haryana seven for no loss in three overs.
At Nagpur: Delhi 523 for nine decl. vs. Vidarbha 257 in 85.4 overs (Shalabh Shrivastava 45, Hemang Badani 68) & one for no loss in three overs.
Group ‘C’:
At Porvorim (Goa): Goa 381 & 11 for no loss in seven overs vs. Assam 366 in 123.3 overs (Pallavkumar Das 70, Sibsankar Roy 87, Dheeraj Jadhav 52, Shadab Jakati four for 72).
At Jammu: Tripura 226 for five in 85 overs (Subhrajit Roy 86, S. Abbas Ali 50 batting) vs. J&K.
At Kadapa: Andhra 329 & 38 for no loss in six overs vs. Kerala 312 in 98.5 overs (V.A. Jagadeesh 117, Sanju Samson 122, D.P. Vijaykumar four for 77, T. Atchuta Rao four for 78).
At Delhi: Services 185 & 152 in 60.4 overs (Avishek Sinha 47 n.o., Ajay Yadav six for 43, Shahbaz Nadeem four for 64) vs. Jharkhand 120 & 35 for no loss in 11 overs.
