Anustup (108) the lone ranger for Bengal against Mumbai in Ranji Trophy


3rd February 2024
Anustup Majumdar displayed a picture of patience, perseverance and counter-attacking play in his well-crafted unbeaten 108 but Mumbai gained the upper hand against Bengal at the end of the second day in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Enroute his 127-ball knock, the 39-year-old struck 12 boundaries and 3 sixes.
The veteran batter's heroics with the bat helped him bring up his 16th first-class century while also extending his excellent form by smashing his third ton of the Ranji season.
At stumps on Day 2, Bengal trail by 213 runs after being bowled out for 199 in their first innings.
For Mumbai, Mohit Avasthi bagged three wickets while Shivam Dube and Royston H Dias took two wickets each.
Earlier, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal (6-124) was superb with the ball while Mohammad Kaif (2-67), Ankit Mishra (1-64) and Ishan Porel (1-91) gave him good support as Bengal managed to restrict Mumbai to 412 in their first innings.
"Anustup is an inspiration for all the youngsters. I hope the young players will learn a lot from this fighting innings of his. Talking about the match, we still have two days to go and anything can happen. We will aim to bounce back and put up an improved performance in the next couple of days," Bengal head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla said after the day's play.
Resuming the day from overnight score of 330/6, Mumbai added 13 runs while losing three quick wickets.
With 347/9, Mumbai tailenders Royston (46 not out) and Dhawal Kulkarni (14) stepped up to add 65 runs for the final wicket to take team past the 400-run mark.
In reply, Bengal batters were put to a tough test as Sourav Paul (0), Shreyansh Ghosh (5) and Sudip Kumar Gharami (6) failed to make an impact to leave team in trouble at 11/3.
From there on, the experienced Manoj Tiwary (36) and Anustup came to the team’s rescue.
The duo added a much-needed 78 runs for the fourth wicket before the Bengal skipper fell to reduce the home side to 89/4.
Abishek Porel (13) and Karan Lal (14) got off to start but failed to give Anustup the support.
Running out of partners, Anustup went on the attacking mode and brought up his ton to bring delight in the Bengal camp.

CAB MEDIA DESK
Arindam Basu