Bengal bowlers push Delhi on the defensive

Bengal restricted Delhi to 200 for six on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super league tie at the Eden Gardens today. A dour unbeaten 79 by opener Akash Chopra in 367 minutes enabled Delhi to reach the 200 mark in the last over of the day, as the Bengal bowlers bowled a tidy length and line. At one point of time, it had appeared that Delhi would not reach even this figure as Saurav Ganguly, Laxmiratan Shukla and Utpal Chatterjee had them tottering at 137 with half the side back in the pavilion. But the three did not have any other bowler to really back them up.

However, even after praising the Bengal bowlers, one felt that the Delhi side were ultra defensive in their approach. They should have played in a positive fashion after winning the toss and batting on a pitch that really had no terrors. It was their approach that allowed the Bengal bowlers to dictate terms. Even half volleys were patted back in a friendly manner to the bowlers. Bengal had three other bowlers namely medium pacer Sumit Panda, leg spinner Wrichik Mazumdar and the offie Sourashis Lahiri. The three combined to bowl 18 overs and did not inspire much confidence amongst their skipper.

Ganguly replaced Panda after he had bowled three overs with the new ball and immediately had Ashu Dani caught behind flashing to an away going delivery. The batsman had then scored 21 in an opening partnership of 45 in 14.4 overs. It was then that the Delhi batsman went into a shell. One drop Akash Malhotra made 34 in 91 minutes with five fours.

However, he perished trying to cut a Chatterjee and was bowled. It was then that Ganguly's innovative captaincy came to play. Ajay Sharma has always been a compulsive puller and Ganguly placed a man two thirds of the way to the fence. Sharma pulled Ganguly for one four through mid wicket and then perished in the very next over, hitting the pull down Rohan Gavaskar's throat.

With Sharma's departure for 11, the Delhi hopes of a 350 plus total disappeared. Then Shukla bowled his best spell of five overs in the day. He had Virendra Shewag and Mithun Minhas leg before with deliveries that came back sharply. The former scored only five and the latter failed to trouble the scorers. Wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya compiled a painstaking 17 in 77 minutes with one boundary of Shukla.

He got out as a Chatterjee delivery bounced and turned on him. It hit him on the glove before it came to rest in Ganguly's hand at first slip. At close Nikhil Chopra on 22 with two boundaries was trying to resurrect the Delhi innings with Akash who has so far 11 hits to the fence. The best being a backfoot drive to the extra cover fence of the bowling of Ganguly.