CABThe Cricket Association of Bengal

Anustup scores fighting 90 but Baroda make strong comeback in Ranji tie


11th January 2023
On a pitch where most of the Bengal batsmen found it tough to execute themselves, Anustup Majumdar was a standout performer with a fighting 90.
Despite his heroics with the bat, Baroda made a strong comeback into the match reducing Bengal to 189/9 at stumps on Day 2 in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A clash at the Bengal Cricket Academy in Kalyani on Wednesday.
After posting 269 in their first innings, Baroda bowlers Sahejadkhan Pathan (4-46) and Soyeb Sopariya (3-43) stepped up to put the visitors in a strong position at the end of the day.
Earlier, resuming the day from overnight score of 222/7, Baroda batsmen could add only 47 runs before their innings folded in 100.1 overs.
For Bengal, Akash Deep (4-71), Mukesh Kumar (3-56) and Sayan Shekhar Mandal (2-48) were the star performers with the ball. In reply, Bengal dealt an early blow after being reduced to 25 for 2 inside six overs.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, who was in superb form in the last few innings, too departed after scoring 22, followed by skipper Manoj Tiwary (9) and Shahbaz Ahmed (8) to put Bengal in trouble at 77/5.
Despite wickets at the other end, Anustup played his natural game, helping team gather some useful runs.
Abishek Porel (25) too scored a handy knock later on and added a much-needed 72-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Anustup.
But after the dismissal of Abishek, Baroda piled more pressure on the home side as Mukesh (4) and Ishan Porel (6) remained unbeaten at the end of the day with Bengal still 80 runs behind in their first innings.


CAB MEDIA DESK
Arindam Basu