The Hindu : Sport : Paul, Bose restrict Uttar Pradesh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 31, 2006

Sport

Sport

Paul, Bose restrict Uttar Pradesh

Rakesh Rao

— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

SOUND REPLY: Arindam Das provided Bengal a good start against Uttar Pradesh.

LUCKNOW: Bengal roared back into the Ranji Trophy final with a timely all-round effort against Uttar Pradesh at the K. D. Singh Babu Stadium here on Monday. Things went Bengal's way on the second day as it restricted UP to 387 and then hit 138 for two at stumps. Resuming the day at 299 for three, UP lost its remaining wickets for the addition of just 88 runs.

Aided by some good catching, medium pacers Shiv Shankar Paul and Ranadeb Bose took three wickets each to keep UP in check before the Bengal top-order batsmen contributed to the gains.

Opener Arindam Das compiled an unbeaten 59, inclusive of four boundaries, and set the foundation for a sound reply from Bengal. In the company of fellow-opener Subhamoy Das (34, six 4s) and one-drop Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (22, three 4s), Arindam did the job entrusted to him in the face of some ordinary bowling from the UP.

Interesting move

Interestingly, after the fall of Subhamoy and Jhunjhunwala, Bengal think-tank thought it fit to send in Shib Sagar Singh, who is known more for his left-arm spinners, even when 23 more overs were scheduled for the day.

Singh, who scored 46 off 237 balls against Gujarat last month, returned unbeaten at 12 in one hour of batting when bad light forced an early closure with nine overs still to be bowled.

With Bengal known to bat deep, UP needs no reminding the job on its hands.

If the first day belonged to UP, the second was Bengal's all the way. Once Deep Dasgupta took the new ball in the morning, Paul and Bose stuck to their tasks and struck by turns.

Tight bowling

The duo bowled in the right areas for 20 overs and alternatively took two wickets each in their first spells before adding two more after lunch to keep UP under the psychologically important 400-run mark.

After Bose sent back Rizwan Shamshad in the day's fourth over, the triple `Nelson' on the board brought triple trouble for the host. Three wickets fell off three successive overs and UP slipped from 333 for four to 333 for seven. Suresh Raina, looking good for a century after moving from his overnight 61 to 90, pulled a short delivery from Paul into the waiting hands of square-leg.

In the next over, Bose had Mohammad Amir Khan caught behind before Paul trapped off-form Jyoti Yadav leg-before for nought.

Thereafter, the seasoned Gyanendra Pandey and young Piyush Chawla joined hands to add 37 runs. But soon after lunch, Chawla was taken at first slip off Lahiri and Pandey offered a regulation low-catch to the wicketkeeper to become Paul's third victim.

Bose made sure that UP's tail did not wag. He had Ashish Winston Zaidi caught at point to end the innings 47 minutes into the second session.

The scores:

Uttar Pradesh — 1st innings: Praveen Kumar c Arindam b Lahiri 48, S. Shukla c Gavaskar b Singh 71, Mohd. Kaif b Singh 92, S. Raina c Subhojit b Paul 90, R. Shamshad c Arindam b Bose 18, Mohd Amir Khan c Dasgupta b Bose 3, J. Yadav lbw b Paul 0, G. Pandey c Dasgupta b Paul 26, P. Chawla c Subhamoy b Lahiri 22, S. Srivastava (not out) 3, A. Zaidi c Jhunjhunwala b Bose 1, Extras (b-4, lb-6, nb-2, w-1) 13, Total (in 124.3 overs) 387.

Fall of wickets: 1-72, 2-105, 3-358, 4-303, 5-333, 6-333, 7-333, 8-370, 9-382.

Bengal bowling: S. S. Paul 42-5-125-3, Bose 28.3-5-86-3, L. R. Shukla 2-0-8-0, Lahiri 26-5-76-2, S. S. Singh 23-4-59-2, Jhunjhunwala 1-0-13-0, Tiwari 1-0-5-0, Gavaskar 1-0-5-0.

Bengal — 1st innings: A. Das (batting) 59, S. Das b Srivastav 34, A. Jhunjhunwala lbw b Chawla 22, S. S. Singh (batting) 12, Extras (b-1, nb-4, w-6) 11, Total (for two wickets in 43.5 overs) 138.

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-102.

UP bowling: A. Zaidi 10-3-21-0, Praveen 10-1-44-0, Srivastav 14-3-43-1, Chawla 9.5-2-29-1.

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