Players Details
Fixture & Results
Confident Bengal to take on Punjab
19th October 2016
Bengal team is confident to carry on the purple patch against Punjab in a group A Ranji trophy match at Luhnu Cricket Stadium in Bilaspur on October 20. In the last match Bengal’s batting helped the team garner 3 points against Uttar Pradesh.
Abhimanyu Easwaran got centuries in both innings, with Shreevats Goswami notching a fine 100 off 91 balls and skipper Manoj Tiwary craking a fine century. The top order also found runs.
On the other hand, Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh looked in good form getting a century in the first innings and scoring a fine 76 in the second. He will be looking to give a hard time to the Bengal bowlers.
Punjab, in the last match defeated Madhya Pradesh convincingly by 126 runs.
However, Bengal coach Sairaj Bahutule is of the view, that cricket is a team game, and his bowlers are confident to destroy Punjab batting. “Our bowlers bowled well in the last match and the batsmans also got good runs. We are quite confident and hoping to getting a good result.”
Asked about Yuvraj Singh being in a good touch, “We are not playing against one batsman. He is obviously a good player. But we have enough capable bowlers to handle him,” he said before adding: “The pitch looks similar like the wicket in Jaipur. It has grass cover on the top. It would help the seamers. So the team that bowls first will try to take advantage of the conditions. “
Skipper, Manoj Tiwary also echoed the same: “The batsman will have to bat well on a grass cover, that should help seamers. We have our plans ready for tomorrow's match. If Yuvraj bats well we have enough good bowlers to counter him.”
The bowlers led by Ashoke Dinda looked in fine form, with Pragyan Ojha and Amir Gani both getting wickets to boost their confidence.
While, in the last three head on counter between Bengal and Punjab, Bengal won two times in 2006 and 2007 by 14 and 9 runs respectively. But in the last face off between the two teams at Ranji trophy 2012-13 session, Punjab won by an innings and 27 runs.
Squad: Manoj Tiwary(C), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Sudip Chatterjee, Prasenjit Das, Agniv Pan, Writtick Chatterjee, Pankaj Shaw, Sreevats Goswami (wk), Ashok Dinda, Sayan Ghosh, Ayan Bhattacharjee, Pragyan Ojha and Aamir Gani
CAB MEDIA DESK
Sayan Banerjee
