Sports

Saurashtra became Ranji champion by defeating Bengal by nine wickets

Kolkata. Experienced left-arm fast bowler Jaydev Unadkat took six for 85 in the second innings and nine wickets in the match as Saurashtra beat Bengal by nine wickets on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy final here on Sunday. Saurashtra had taken a step towards victory only after taking a huge lead of 230 runs in the first innings. Bengal started the day at 169 for four but their entire team was dismissed for 241 runs. Saurashtra got the target of 12 runs to win the match. Saurashtra lost the wicket of opener Jai Gohil (0) to Akashdeep but the team scored 14 runs in 2.4 overs to become Ranji Trophy champions for the second time. Saurashtra got the previous title in the 2019-20 season.

At that time the team defeated Bengal on the basis of first innings lead. Saurashtra proved their consistency by appearing in the Ranji Trophy finals five times in the last 10 seasons. The Bengal team once again missed out on becoming champions. They won their last title in 1989-90 by defeating star-studded Delhi at the same Eden Gardens ground. The team’s first title came in the pre-independence era in 1938–39. Unadkat once again proved his bowling iron in the opening session of the day. He took four of the last five wickets after Shahbaz Ahmed (27) was run out. He took two wickets on Saturday. Bengal’s experienced batsmen captain Manoj Tiwary (68) and Anustup Majumdar (61) showed fighting half-centuries but the team was let down by the top-order batsmen.

Abhimanyu Easwaran could score only zero and 16 runs in two innings of the final. Sudeep Gharami, who scored a century in the semi-final, could only contribute zero and 14. Gharami has scored more than 800 runs in this season. Giving Sumant Gupta a chance to make his debut in the final also cost Bengal dearly. He lacked the technique required of a top-order batsman. He looked uncomfortable on the balls that came out. Tiwari, the state sports minister and captain of the team, deferred his decision to retire in order to win the Ranji Trophy title. This was his fourth final but every time he was disappointed. Earlier, the previous day’s pairing of Tiwary and Shahbaz fell foul of trying to steal the third run. Shahbaz had to bear the brunt of this by being run out. Due to this, Tiwari’s rhythm also got disturbed.

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He was dismissed by hitting the bat on Unadkat’s outside ball. Shortly after this, Bengal’s score was 205 for nine wickets. The last pair of Mukesh Kumar and Ishan Porel shared a 37-ball 36-run partnership to save the team from an innings defeat. Unadkat, who was released from the Indian team for the Ranji final, took three wickets for 44 runs in the first innings. He was well supported by young left arm fast bowler Chetan Sakariya. Sakariya took three wickets for 33 runs.

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