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
Sakyasen Mittra
28-Dec-2000
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.