Ranji Trophy: Bengal batsmen squander good starts

KOLKATA: Bengal batsmen refuse to learn from their mistakes. They got starts but failed to convert them into big scores to end Day I of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘B’ match against Himachal Pradesh at 266 for six in Amtar on Thursday.
Openers Abhishek Raman and Abhimanyu Easwaran provided the team a decent start, seeing through the potentially tricky first hour after skipper Manoj Tiwary chose to bat first.
Himachal skipper Rishi Dhawan, coming in as first-change seamer, drew first blood when he had Easwaran caught by Prashant Chopra for 21 to break the 64-run opening stand. Raman then built up a good partnership with Sudip Chatterjee, who had an ordinary Vijay Hazare Trophy. The left-hander played some fluent strokes and looked to have settled down before the hosts came back strongly to dismiss both batsmen in quick succession.
While Raman missed his half-century by two runs, being caught by Ankush Bains off pacer Pankaj Jaiswal, off-spinner Gurvinder Singh — Himachal’s leading wicket-taker last season — had Chatterjee caught by Shresth Nirmohi for 43.
Skipper Tiwary and Anushtup Majumdar steadied the ship again, stitching a 73-run stand for the fourth wicket. A determined Tiwary reached 50 off 72 balls before Himachal hit back again to claim three wickets in the final session.
Tiwary was trapped in front of the wickets by leg-spinner Prashant Chopra for 55. Majumdar (52) also hit a half-century before becoming Dhawan’s second victim.
Bengal suffered another jolt late in the day when wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami was caught by Bains off Jaswal for 10. Aamir Goni and all-rounder B Amit negotiated the remaining two overs safely.
Tiwary agreed that Bengal should have been in a better position at stumps. "All the batsmen got starts. They were playing well. We should have done better," he said. "At least two of them should have scored centuries," he felt.
Shot-making, however, wasn’t easy as Tiwary said the pitch is playing slow.
The skipper felt it would be great if Bengal can post a 350-plus total. "We need a couple of partnerships tomorrow," Tiwary quipped.