Gavaskar and Chatterjee star in Bengal's massive win

A captain's knock of 166 from Rohan Gavaskar and thirteen wickets from left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee powered Bengal to an innings and 248 runs win over Tripura in the Ranji tie between the two sides at Agartala.

Nikhil Haldipur with 88, Subhomoy Gupinath Das with 57 and all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla with a swashbuckling 54, were the other batsmen to shine as the visiting Bengal team declared after putting up a massive 457 for eight on the board.

Tripura's reply was unimpressive to say the least; they were dismissed for 89 after Chatterjee claimed six for 23 with his slow let-arm spin. Forced to follow-on, the home side found at least one batting hero in Timir Kajal Chanda who made 54 off 82 balls. But Chatterjee, opening the bowling this time, ran through the rest of the batting in a huff after castling Chanda. The 37-year-old's figures in the second innings read 20.5-10-32-7. His match-figures were, not surprisingly, exceptional: 46.3-23-55-13. Bengal, who won the match inside three days, were rewarded with eight points for their labours.