Bengal’s fancied pace attack failed to press on the advantage as Uttarakhand staged a strong fightback in the second innings of the ongoing Ranji Trophy match at Eden Gardens.
With the likes of Mohammed Shami and Akash Deep in the XI, many believe Bengal have one of the best pace attacks in the country. But on Friday, trailing by 110 after Bengal’s first innings ended at 323 and losing a wicket early in the second over of their second innings, Uttarakhand still managed to reach 165 for the loss of just one more wicket with a lead of 55 at stumps on the penultimate day of their Ranji Trophy opener.
Opener Prashant Chopra (82) and skipper Kunal Chandela (68 batting) braved Bengal’s pace quartet of Shami, Akash, Ishan Porel and Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal to forge a solid 146-run partnership for the second wicket. For Bengal, they desperately need to make use of the final morning on Saturday to keep their hopes of an outright win alive.
The conditions at the Eden haven’t really been ideal
for fast bowling for a good part of the game, though curator Sujan Mukherjee claimed the surface had “enough grass content” for the quicks to
exploit. However, in a nutshell, the performance of the Bengal pacers on Day III was far
from impressive.
Senior-most pacer Shami (0/21), for whom these conditions aren’t alien at all, was economical but not teething enough in his four spells spread over 15 overs he sent down on Friday. The same can be said about Akash, Ishan and Suraj.
Pitch complaint
The Bengal camp, though, is livid with how the pitch has fared so far.
“So slow is the pitch that their (Uttarakhand) batters are comfortably going full stretch forward against our pacers. Guys like Shami and Akash Deep aren’t bad bowlers. Where is our home advantage?” Bengal assistant coach Arup Bhattacharya told Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) vice-president Nitishranjan Dutta in the presence of several other people on the Eden premises.
It was learnt that the Bengal team manager had also spoken to CAB secretary Bablu Kolay about the pitch later in the evening.
Brief scores: Uttarakhand 213 & 165/2 (Prashant Chopra 82, Kunal Chandela 68 batting;
Akash Deep 1/39, Vishal Bhati 1/39).
Bengal 323 (Sumanta Gupta 82; Devendra Singh Bora 6/79). At Stumps, Day III.