The Bengal bowlers struck early to restrict Tamil Nadu to a modest 246 before the batsmen complemented them with a diligent reply to take the host’s first innings total to 183 for two at stumps on the second day of the Group A Ranji Trophy league at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
Tamil Nadu suffered another blow with its captain R. Prasanna suffering a serious injury following a collision with Bengal medium-pacer Ashoke Dinda in the last ball of the 84th over of the Tamil Nadu innings.
Dinesh Karthik led the side after Prasanna was taken to a local hospital for check-up where tests revealed a bulge in the lower disc.
“I have aggravated an injury in the lower back region. Let’s see how it feels tomorrow morning; only then I can decide about playing,” said Prasanna, who scored a patient 50 (123b, 4x4), as he limped off to the team bus after the match.
Dinda inflicted more damage with the ball picking up four Tamil Nadu wickets.
Resuming at 208 for five, the visitors lost R. Sathish in the very first over of the day as he edged a fine delivery from Dinda and departed without any addition to his overnight score of 10.
Sathish’s dismissal started a procession back to the pavilion as young Bengal medium-pacer Pritam Chakraborty picked up the wickets of L. Balaji and R. Aushik Srinivas, while debutant T. Natarajan was run out through a fine effort by Dinda.
The Bengal top order made a confident start as openers Arindam Das (48) and Rohan Banerjee (27) added 74 for the first wicket before Abhimanyu Easwaran (41 batting) was involved in an unbeaten 81-run partnership with Manoj Tiwary (54 batting) to take Bengal to a comfortable position.
Things could have been different for Tamil Nadu had K. Bharath Shankar not dropped Tiwary (on 43) at second slip in the 50th over off M. Mohammad.
The scores:
Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: K. Bharath Shankar b Dinda 18, Abhinav Mukund c Goswami b Shukla 26, B. Aparajith b Dinda 26, Dinesh Karthik c Goswami b Dinda 92, B. Indrajith b Sarkar 0, R. Prasanna (retd. hurt) 50, R. Sathish c Goswami b Dinda 10, L. Balaji c Tiwary b Chakraborty 2, R. Aushik Srinivas c Goswami b Chakraborty 6, M. Mohammed (not out) 10, T. Natarajan (run out) 2; Extras (lb-4): 4; Total (in 88.4 overs): 246.
Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-69, 3-86, 4-91, 5-196, 6-208, 7-218, 8-228, 9-246.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 27-7-76-4, Sourav Sarkar 21.4-4-56-1, Pritam Chakraborty 18-6-40-2, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 12-2-33-1, Saurasish Lahiri 10-0-37-0.
Bengal — 1st innings: Rohan Banerjee c Bharath Shankar b Natarajan 27, Arindam Das lbw b Balaji 48, A.R. Eswaran (batting) 41, Manoj Tiwary (batting) 54; Extras (nb-3, b-7, lb-3): 13; Total (for two wkts. in 52 overs): 183.
Fall of wickets: 1-74, 2-102.
Tamil Nadu bowling: L. Balaji 15-3-46-1, M. Mohammad 17-5-45-0, T. Natarajan 13-3-48-1, R. Sathish 1-0-8-0, R. Aushik Srinivas 6-0-26-0.
