Ganguly's career best figures restricts Orissa

Sourav Ganguly's best bowling figures in first class cricket (6/46)helped hosts Bengal to restrict Orissa to a score of 251 for eight wickets in the crucial East Zone Ranji Trophy encounter at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. His earlier best was 6 for 88 against Delhi last season.

The match will decide as to which team will top the group from the zone and Ganguly's bowling has given Bengal the chance of keeping the Orissa score below 300. However, if Ganguly walked away with the bowling honours it was Sanjay Raul who stole the show with the bat. Coming in to bat with the score at 15 for two wickets, Raul scored his eighth Ranji Trophy hundred and 11th in first class cricket. On a pitch, where the ball tended to keep low at times, Raul showed superb technique in handling the experienced Ganguly and Utpal Chatterjee to keep Orissa in the match. His innings was all the more significant because he lost Shiv Sundar Das immediately on his arrival at the wicket.

It looked like Das had failed to judge the pitch as he elected to bat after winning the toss. Orissa were 17 for three in only in the 10th over, Ganguly doing the early damage with some controlled swing bowling. He found an able ally in Shivshankar Paul who bowled with a lot of zest in his first spell. The manner in which Ganguly dismissed his India compatriot Das was an example as to how well he used the new ball. It was an outswinger that bounced and flicked Das' glove on its way to Shrikkant Kalyani at second slip. The veteran took a good catch diving forward.

At this stage with Orissa tottering, Raul and Parida added 126 runs for the fourth wicket to rescue their team. While Raul was compact with drives in front of the wicket, Parida was in an adventurous mood. Their job was simplified because there was no bowler to back Ganguly. Off spinner Sourashis Lahiri and leg spinner Wrichik Mazumdar were either wayward or lacked the variation to trouble the batsmen.

Raul finally broke the shackles with a lovely straight drive of Ganguly and then Parida smacked Lahiri over mid wicket for a six. However, after scoring a well compiled 71 he was unlucky to be given caught behind by Deep Dasgupta off Chatterjee. The ball clearly flicked the top of his pad. At this stage Ganguly came back for his fourth spell. With the old ball, he reverse swung it with deadly effect to send back two more batsmen. First, he had P. Jayachandra bowled with a yorker and then had the Orissa wicket-keeper Gautam Gopal leg before.

Raul now took over. He saw out Ganguly and attacked the other bowlers. A pull of Paul was the shot of the day. He also played some lovely drives of Lahiri and Chatterjee and finally reached his century in the fourth over after tea. Chatterjee dropped one shot and Raul pulled it to the mid wicket fence, to the applause of the 7,000-odd spectators. Raul was ably supported by S Satpathy and the two added 76 runs for the seventh wicket.

It was the second new ball taken after 81 overs that broke the partnership. Ganguly first induced Satpathy to edge him and Deep Dasgupta behind the stumps came up with a good catch. Raul hit a spanking cover drive in the next over of Ganguly. However, two deliveries later, he tried to repeat the shot. The resultant edge was spectacularly snapped up by Dasgupta diving in front of first slip. His 118 had come in 312 minutes from 218 balls with 16 boundaries. At close Debashis Mohanty and Jagannath Das were at the crease.