Amit Kuila made a memorable debut with his sharp bowling, bagging three wickets for Bengal, but Punjab stayed in the race for the first innings lead as it reached 168 for four on the second day of their Ranji Trophy league match at the Luhnu ground here on Friday.
The 21-year-old Kuila, tall and wiry, worked up considerable pace on an helpful pitch. But floored catches, two of them in one over of Kuila, took the sting away from Bengal’s response after it had made 404.
However, the Bengal camp had a lot to cheer as it dismissed the danger man, Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh, who glanced the seasoned medium-pacer Ashok Dinda into the diving gloves of wicket-keeper Shreevats Goswami.
Bengal had thrived on more than half-a-dozen dropped catches but Punjab took some smart ones on Friday morning and celebrated heartily, as Sandeep Sharma ended with four wickets. Bengal could have been restricted below 400 but Punjab had the ignominy of continuing the toil as the last wicket had fallen off a ‘no ball.’
Apart from the missed catches, two wickets off ‘no balls’ added insult to injury to the Punjab fielding. Pankaj Shaw capitalised on the situation to stroke a patient 55 off 138 balls that added substance to the Bengal innings.
Punjab’s batting revolved on the unbeaten 73 by Uday Kaul, who came into the middle after opener Jiwanjot Singh was caught for nought in the second over, the maiden first class wicket for Kuila.
Taruwar Kohli is giving company to Uday in an unbeaten 57-run partnership, but Bengal will attempt to press the advantage in the lively conditions in the morning on the morrow.
The scores:
Bengal — 1st innings: Abhimanyu Easwaran lbw b Sandeep 8, Sayan Sekhar Mondal c Khera b Manpreet 135, Sudip Chatterjee c Manpreet b Vinay 51, Agniv Pan c Khera b Vinay 70, Manoj Tiwary c Kohli b Sandeep 45, Pankaj Shaw c Khera b Kaul, 55, Pragyan Ojha c Gurkeerat b Sandeep 2, Shreevats Goswami c Manan b Manpreet 5, Ayan Bhattacharjee c Manan b Sandeep 9, Ashoke Dinda b Vinay 10, Amit Kuila (not out) 0; Extras (b-2, lb-4, nb-5, w-3): 14, Total (in 120.3 overs): 404.
Fall of wickets: 1-8; 2-110, 3-250, 4-289. 5-329, 6-332, 7-346, 8-362, 9-381.
Punjab bowling: Sandeep Sharma 29-4-96-4; Manpreet Singh Grewal 26-9-68-2; Siddharth Kaul 26.3-7-85-1; Gurkeerat Mann 12-0-55-0; Vinay Choudhary 22-6-75-3; Yuvraj Singh 5-0-19-0.
Punjab — 1st innings: Manan Vohra c Shreevats b Kuila 23, Jiwanjot Singh c Shaw b Kuila 0, Uday Kaul (batting) 73, Yuvraj Singh c Shreevats b Dinda 22, Gurkeerat Mann c Ayan b Kuila 18, Taruwar Kohli (batting) 26; Extras (b-1, lb-2, nb-3): 6, Total (for four wkts. in 51 overs): 168.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-40, 3-74, 4-111.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 13-3-39-1; Amit Kuila 16-3-44-3; Ayan Bhattacharjee 9-1-39-0; Sayan Sekhar Mondal 1-0-10-0; Pragyan Ojha 6-0-17-0; Pankaj Shaw 4-1-8-0; Manoj Tiwari 2-0-8-0.
