Tiwary provides Bengal lead after Dinda, Kuila shine

Bilaspur, October 22

Ashok Dinda and debutant Amit Kuila grabbed five wickets each before skipper Manoj Tiwary struck an unbeaten 61 as Bengal consolidated their position against Punjab with a 315-run lead in their Ranji Trophy Group A encounter.

At stumps on the third day, Bengal were 182/5 in their second innings after bowling out Punjab for 271 in their first essay. Having scored 404 in their first innings, Bengal enjoyed a handy first innings lead of 133. Starting the day at 168/4, Uday Kaul (77) only added a boundary to his overnight score before young Kuila (5/76) got him caught by skipper Tiwary. Taruwar Kohli (26) was trapped leg before by Dinda before Kuila got rid of Vinay Choudhary to complete a five-wicket haul on debut. The last three wickets were taken by Dinda to complete his 18th five-wicket haul in his 90th first-class appearance. 

None of the Bengal batsmen save Tiwary, who hit seven fours and a six, could stay at the wicket for long. The skipper added 46 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket stand with Shreevats Goswami (23). The other batsman who got some runs was Pankaj Shaw (29). — PTI

Ranji Trophy

• Brief scores: Bengal: 404 and 182/5 (Manoj Tiwary 61*, Shreevats Goswami 23*); Punjab: 271 (Uday Kaul 77, Amit Kuila 5/76, Ashok Dinda 5/58).
• Tripura: 549; HP: 311in 93 overs (Robin Bist 88, Rishi Dhawan 62, Rana Dutta 6/58 and 19/1.
• J&K: 334 and 31/2 (S Khajuria 13*; AP: 255 (DB Ravi Teja 81, AG Pradeep 47, A Aziz 5/62, P Rasool 3/40).
• Haryana: 178 & 289; Chhattisgarh: 189 & 50/6 (Mohit 3/10).