Bengal fight back after Punjab take big lead

Kolkata, January 9 

Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran cracked a second successive innings century as he, along with skipper Manoj Tiwary, led Bengal's fightback against Punjab in their do-or-die Ranji Trophy Elite Group B clash on Wednesday.  The 23-year-old opener was unbeaten on 100, his third of the season and 10th overall, while Tiwary returned to form with an elegant 90 not out as the duo stitched an unbroken 180-run partnership.

Bengal conceded a huge 260-run first innings lead, thanks to an 83-run last wicket partnership between Manpreet Grewal (69 not out) and Siddharth Kaul (nine). Grewal smashed five sixes and six boundaries en route to his knock from 67 balls.

Earlier resuming the day on 357/7, Punjab lost their first wicket on the fifth ball of the day when Mukesh Kumar (5/114) cleaned up Vinay Chaudhary en route his second five-wicket haul. In the next over, Bengal pace spearhead Ashok Dinda (1/83) dismissed overnight centurion Anmolpreet Singh for 126. But Grewal propped up the total from 363/9 with his quickfire innings. 

Bengal mentor Arun Lal criticised Punjab and said they “killed the game” as they continued batting despite an overnight lead of 170 runs. “They killed the match. They were 170 runs ahead on second day, they should have declared and got us out.” The defence, though, sounded more like an excuse. Punjab top-scorer Anmolpreet, however, said the game was still result-oriented.  “If they set a target, we will go for it. It's still a result-oriented game,” he said.

Brief scores: Bengal 187 and 218/2 (Abhimanyu Easwaran 100*, Manoj Tiwary 90* batting); Punjab 447 (Anmolpreet Singh 126, Shubman Gill 91, Manpreet Grewal 69*; Mukesh Kumar 5/114, Pradipta Pramanik 4/108). 

Himachal 297 all out (A Kalsi 101, Rishi Dhawan 58; Nidheesh 6/88) and 285/8 (Rishi Dhawan 85, A Kalsi 64; Sijomon Joseph 4/51) vs Kerala 286 all out (P Rahul 127, Sanju Samson 50; Arpit N Guleria 5 /47).

J&K: 151 & 24/0 Jharkhand: 319/9 decl (S Tiwary 134, K Deobrat 74; P Rasool 4/98)