The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Shukla comes to Bengal's rescue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 14, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Shukla comes to Bengal's rescue

By Our Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM, DEC. 13. India discard Laxmi Ratan Shukla came to Bengal's rescue with a half-century and helped it cross the 200-run mark on Monday, the first day of the Elite Group-A Ranji Trophy match against Andhra at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here.

It was also a momentous day for the hard-working Andhra medium pacer, K.S. Shahbuddin as he claimed his 100th Ranji wicket.

Bengal, opting to bat, began well with the in-form Arindam Das putting on 82 for the first wicket with Deep Dasgupta. But it was in deep trouble in the second session losing four wickets for the addition of 46 runs despite Arindam trying to hold the innings together.

Sanjib Sanyal provided able support to Shukla, who completed his well deserved half-century just before the close of play. The duo tackled the Andhra bowling well during their 47-run stand for the sixth wicket as the pitch started taking some turn in the third session of the day.

For Y. Venugopala Rao, who led the team in the absence of injured M.S.K. Prasad, it was a satisfying day as he picked up two wickets, along with Md. Faiq, who bowled his off-spinners well.

Andhra's first success came just before the lunch break when the young Andhra medium pacer A.S.K. Varma broke through the defence of Deep Dasgupta (48, 9x4). Venu took the prize wicket of Rohan Gavaskar, trapping him in front.

Arindam's fine knock came to an end as Md. Faiq removed him with Gnaneswar taking a fine catch. But Shukla's partnership with Sanyal frustrated Andhra. Sanyal was lucky to get a reprieve when Appa Rao failed to hold on to a catch at mid-on off Faiq.

The scores:

Bengal — 1st innings: A. Das c Gnaneswara Rao b Faiq 59, Deep Dasgupta b Varma 48, N. Haldipur c Gnaneswara Rao b Venu 0, R. Gavaskar lbw Venugopala Rao 1, Subhomoy Das b Shahbuddin 9, L.R. Shukla (batting) 51, S. Sanyal c Gnaneswara Rao bt Faiq 16, S. Lahari (batting) 11; Extras (b-6, lb-3, nb-1, w-1); Total (for six wickets) 206.

Fall of wickets: 1-82, 2-87, 3-95, 4-118, 5-133, 6-180.

Andhra bowling: Shahbuddin 14-6-19-1, Kalyan Krishna 11-4-22-0, Prasad 5-0-20-0, Appa Rao 18-8-27-0, Faiq 17-2-50-2, Venugopala Rao 16-4-35-2, Varma 6-2-15-1, Pradeep 1-0-4-0, Pathak 1-0-1-0, Gnaneswara Rao 1-0-4-0.

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