Rahul Dewan celebrates his century, in Rohtak. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

Rohtak: For the handful of Sourav Ganguly fans, who came with posters like “Dada is a champion batsman” and “we miss you, Dada,” it was a disappointing day at the Bansi Lal Stadium.

While the supporters had come to see the former India captain bat, all they could watch was how the Bengal bowlers were left frustrated by the determined Haryana batsmen for the better part of the opening day’s play in the Ranji Trophy tie on Tuesday.

On a wicket which had a bit of grass, the hosts who won the toss and decided to bat, cruised to 258 for five at close, thanks to centuries from opener Rahul Dewan (115) and No. 3 batsman Sunny Singh (111). The pair stitched together 161 runs for the second wicket.

Things could have been worse for Bengal, but they managed to do some damage control in the final session capturing three Haryana wickets.

Bengal, however, can only blame themselves for allowing Haryana to take the upper hand. While most of their bowlers failed to make much of an impact, what really let the visitors down was their sloppy fielding. Sunny was the biggest beneficiary of Bengal’s shoddy catching. The Bhiwani lad hit his second first-class century of the season but was let off thrice before he reached the three-figure mark.

Before the lunch break, he was dropped on 18 by Mohammed Shami Ahmed off his own bowling and then by Writam Porel at gully six runs later. The bowler, who suffered this time, was Ashok Dinda.

Living a charmed life, Sunny grew in confidence as he along with Dewan negotiated the Bengal attack rather easily. They weren’t overtly aggressive but also did not lose any opportunity to punish the loose deliveries. Dewan, who plays for Sonnet Club in Delhi, was the better of the two as his second century of the season was a chanceless knock. He batted for 263 minutes and hit 15 boundaries.

Sourav tried all means to break the partnership that threatened to take the game away after opener Nitin Saini was dismissed for nine. Saini was caught by wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha off a fine delivery from Shami. But sadly, none of the other bowlers, including experienced Ranadeb Bose and Dinda could exploit the conditions. The captain rotated his bowlers but it did not yield much result.

Dinda, however, deserves the credit for removing Dewan when he was brought back from the Railways end. It was a well-disguised bouncer that took off from short of a good length and as Dewan awkwardly fended it, the ball lobbed to Saha behind the stumps.

Dinda was unlucky when he got another chance to dismiss Sunny but Avishek Jhunjhunwala provided the batsman with his third lifeline, dropping him at mid-wicket on 87. Sunny duly completed his century and was finally castled by a Laxmi Ratan Shukla inswinger. He scored 115 with the help of 11 fours and four sixes. All the big hits came off left-arm spinner Iresh Saxena.

Bengal were finally able to put the brakes on Haryana’s progress after tea. Three wickets fell during this period with Saxena getting two.

While he sent back talented youngster Abhimanyu Khod (8) cheaply to provide Saha with his third victim of the day, Priyank Tehlan (3) played a poor shot to be caught at mid-off by Jhunjhunwala.