Orissa defeat Bengal, qualify for Wills Trophy
Orissa qualified for the Wills Trophy after 16 years, defeating Bengal by eight wickets in their final East Zone Ranji Trophy one day league match at the Eden Gardens today
Sakysen Mittra
10-Dec-2000
Orissa qualified for the Wills Trophy after 16 years, defeating Bengal by eight
wickets in their final East Zone Ranji Trophy one day league match at the Eden
Gardens today. As a result, Orissa finished with eight points, sufficient for
them to make it to the Wills Trophy.
It was a wrong decision by the Bengal think-tank that proved disastrous for the
hosts. After winning the toss, Bengal decided to bat on a pitch that had a lot
of life in the initial period, an advantage that was used to the hilt by
Debashis Mohanty and Ajoy Barik. Bengal lost their first seven wickets within 20
runs and the match was as good as over during the first hour of the game. The
decision to bat was all the more surprising because only on Saturday, Bengal
skipper Devang Gandhi had said they would like to chase. It was the grave error
in reading the pitch that prevented the finalists of 1998 from qualifying this
season.
Bengal managed to reach three figures only because of a doughty knock from
Wrichik Mazumdar. He scored 37 in 80 balls and with Shiv Sagar Singh added 42
runs for the ninth wicket. Before that, it was simply a tale of going and coming
back. The slide started when the Orissa wicket-keeper Gautam Gopal took an
excellent catch on the leg side to dismiss makeshift opener Lakshmi Ratan Shukla
off the bowling of Barik. Then Mohanty got into the act. With his outswinger
working nicely, Mohanty cartwheeled Nikhil Haldipur and Rohan Gavaskar. Barik on
the other hand had Gandhi hooking, only to find the fielder at square leg.
Bengal had then been reduced to only nine runs for four wickets. Mohanty then
once more produced a lovely break back to bowl Deep Dasgupta in his third over.
Then in his fifth over he had Utpal Chatterjee playing on and with the fifth
delivery of the same over, had Sanjiv Sanyal edging to keeper Gopal. Bengal at
this stage, were 20 for seven. Srikkant Kalyani, Mazumdar and Singh managed to
take the total to over 100. However, that would not have been possible had not
the Orissa team given away 25 extras, 20 of which came from wides and no balls.
When Orissa batted, BBCC Mahapatra was bowled by Shukla trying to pull a ball
that kept low. Immediately after lunch, Shukla had Gopal caught at point with a
ball that bounced a bit more. However, Sanjay Raul batting with elan on a pitch
that had dried up, quietly guided Orissa to victory without a fuss. His driving
within the `V' was a treat to watch. He remained unbeaten on 42 with five fours.
With Pradip Das, the other opener, Raul added 78 runs to take Orissa to a
convincing win.