Rohan Gavaskar

Mysore: Aided by Rohan Gavaskar’s unbeaten 77, Bengal notched up 208 for three in first innings against Karnataka on Day I of their Ranji Trophy elite group A match here on Saturday.

Electing to bat, Bengal lost opener Subhamoy Das (10) quite early, gobbled at slip by skipper Sujith Somasundar off Vinay Kumar with 16 on board. Devang Gandhi (19) was the next to be dismissed, trapped by mediumpacer B. Akhil.

The third wicket pair of Arindam Das (56, 193 balls, 3x4s, 1x6) and Rohan Gavaskar, batted confidently and added 84 runs in 184 minutes off 210 balls.

Gasvakar played some attractive strokes and kept the Karnataka bowlers at bay.

Das, after a compact but slow innings of 56, was caught at silly-point by Robin Uthappa off spinner Sunil Joshi.

Gavaskar and Manoj Tewari carried on the good work and took Bengal to a strong position at stumps. Duo added 71 runs for the fourth wicket partnership.

Vinay Kumar bowled a disciplined line and length and gave away 36 runs in 16 overs. Veteran Karnataka player Sunil Joshi kept the Bengal batsmen guessing with his off spinners and was pretty cheap with his figures of 47 from 26 overs.