Kanwath, Jain send Bengal on a leather hunt

Rajasthan, taking advantage of a weak Bengal attack, poor fielding and inept captaincy reached 295 for the loss of three wickets on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Super league Group A encounter at the Eden Gardens on Thursday. Bad light stopped play 17 balls and 11 minutes before the scheduled close.

Centuries by opener Anshu Jain and one drop Rahul Kanwath and their 254-run stand for the second wicket helped the visitors to take a firm grip. However, both batsmen will have to thank the fielders for getting their centuries. Kanwath offered three chances while going from 93 to 97 of 24 deliveries. All were mistimed pull shots. On two occasions the bowler was Lakshmi Ratan Shukla and on the third it was Sumit Panda. Alokendu Lahiri at deep square leg was guilty of starting late on two occasions. Then Wrichik Mazumdar dropped the batsman when he pulled Panda down his throat. The chances which came in the post lunch session could have bought Bengal well back into the match.

On the other hand, Jain was distinctly lucky to see Srikanth Kalyani at first slip failing to react to his attempted cut shot off Rohan Gavaskar's bowling. The batsman then was on 94. He ultimately got his hundred cutting Chatterjee to the point fence.

As far as the bowling was concerned, it was quite ordinary, save for Utpal Chatterjee and Shukla. The latter gave the first breakthrough, having Gagan Khoda caught by Haldipur at slip. But after that it was a long haul in the field. Kanwath was finally out in the sixth over after tea attempting to drive leg spinner Mazumdar. He failed to get to the pitch of the ball and the edge was taken at slip by Chatterjee. Then Jain trying to sweep Chatterjee was caught bat-pad at slip by Gavaskar. These two wickets revived some hopes for Bengal. Kanwath in his innings of 143 had 22 boundaries of 186 deliveries. The more circumspect Jain, in his innings of 115 of 266 deliveries had 15 boundaries.

The match, however, emphasized one fact. Without Saurav Ganguly, this Bengal team is a very ordinary side.