Anustup Majumdar hammered another splendid unbeaten century to perform a familiar rescue act for Bengal on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal against Karnataka at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday.
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Majumdar’s second consecutive hundred (120 batting, 173b, 18x4, 1x6) pulled Bengal out of trouble — from a disastrous 67 for six to 275 for nine at stumps — in the first innings. Familiar collapse Bengal, put in, needed to see off the morning session, in which the Karnataka seamers generated movement and applied pressure from both ends.
But the hosts experienced another familiar collapse. Abhishek Raman, who became the first batsman to be dismissed through DRS in the tournament, was caught behind in the third over while trying to drive Abhimanyu Mithun outside the offstump.
Abhimanyu Eawaran played Prasidh Krishna to short mid-wicket, Arnab Nandi got a gem of a delivery from Mithun and an aggressive Manoj Tiwary fell to K. Gowtham. More strikes Sudip Chatterjee, returning after two months, patiently consumed two hours before being adjudged lbw off Ronit More at the stroke of lunch. More completed his unfinished over after the break by sending back Shreevats Goswami.
Majumdar, who saved Bengal on three earlier occasions, had his plans in place. The 35-year-old combined with Shahbaz Ahmed to play positively on a surface that had eased out. Majumdar drove beautifully and flicked gracefully to relieve the pressure with some boundaries. Shahbaz (35, 50b, 7x4) also did not let any chance go waste. Useful partnership The two put up the first substantial partnership (72) of the innings as they put pressure on the Karnataka fielding.
The exit of Shahbaz, whowas bamboozled by Mithun, did not halt Bengal’s progress. Akash Deep (44, 72b, 3x4, 3x6), coming back from an injury, hit three sixes off Gowtham while giving good support to Majumdar. They added an invaluable 103 runs for the eighth wicket in less than two hours. Following the departure of Akash, who fell leg-before to Gowtham, Majumdar pulled Mithun to the fence to reach his ninth century.
Brief Scores:
Bengal: B — 1st innings: Abhishek Raman c Sharath b Mithun 0, Abhimanyu Easwaran c Gowtham b Prasidh 15, Sudip Chatterjee lbw b More 20, Arnab Nandi c Sharath b Mithun 17, Manoj Tiwary c Rahul bGowtham 8, Anustup Majumdar (batting) 120, Shreevats Goswami lbw b More 0, Shahbaz Ahmed b Mithun 35, Akash Deep lbw b Gowtham 44, Mukesh Kumar c Sharath b Prasidh 7, Ishan Porel (batting) 0; Extras (b-2, lb-1, nb-5, w-1): 9, Total (for nine wkts. in 82 overs): 275
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-17, 3-43, 4-62, 5-66, 6-67, 7-139, 8-242, 9-258.
Karnataka bowling: Mithun 173-65-3, Prasidh 18-5-62-3, More 16-3-45-2, Gowtham 261-88-2, Karun 5-0-12-0.
Toss: Karnataka.
