Bengal have score to settle with HP

Kolkata: Bengal will like to settle scores with Himachal Pradesh when the two sides meet in the Elite Group ‘A’ Ranji Trophy match at the Eden Gardens from Tuesday. Little over a month back, the Rishi Dhawan-led side spoiled a perfect start to Bengal’s domestic season by knocking them out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) meet in the quarterfinals winning by four wickets in a last-ball thriller.
Another such close contest is expected between the two who have made the right start to their red-ball campaign by getting off the block winning their opening games.The winners of this top of the table sides will take a big step towards qualification from this group.
Bengal showed great character in their six-wicket victory against Uttar Pradesh last week after being down for the first two days. Himachal on the other hand almost dominated their rivals Haryana in their last match, bowling them out at their home Rohtak before lunch on Day I for just 46 runs and then put up 487 for four declared. Haryana fell for 353 runs in their second essay, going down by an innings and 88 runs.
Bengal will again look to pacer Ishan Porel, who returned to action for the first time this season bagging seven wickets, to stop the Himachal batters to score big.
It was also heartening to see Akash Deep returning among wickets in the second innings but Bengal will miss Pritam Chakraborty, wo caimed five wickets in the last match, out with a hamstring injury. Former India U-19 pacer Ravikanth Singh is likely to replace him in the playing XI. The hosts, who missed Abhimanyu Easwaran, will need a better start from openers Koushik Ghosh and Abhishek Das against an experienced bowling attack of Dhawan, Sidharth Sharma, Vaibhav Arora and KD Singh. On the contrary it was the Himachal openers Raghav Dhawan and Prashant Chopra who set the tone for their side by both getting centuries.
“We will take a lot of confidence going into this match. The fighting spirit we showed against UP was great,” coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla said on the eve of the game. “However, Himachal are also coming on the back of a victory so we need to keep our intensity high,” skipper Manoj Tiwary, who played a great kncok in the second innings against UP, stated. “We should not repeat the mistakes of our previous match,” Tiwary said.