Ranji Trophy: With eyes on knockouts, Rajasthan ready to face Bengal

JAIPUR: With the league stage of the Ranji Trophy at its fag end, which two teams will qualify for the knockouts is open to speculation. Neither late bloomers Rajasthan nor rugged Bengal can afford to take their foot off the pedal when they take on each other at the SMS Stadium on Tuesday. Rajasthan captain Ashok Menaria is in good nick and has been able to inspire the young side that has produced performances both in the batting and bowling departments reviving the teams hope of qualifying to the quarterfinals.
Menaria's opposite number Abhimanyu Easwaran, who is back from India 'A' duties, is yet to chip in with a big score, but has in his armoury a good batting line-up and bowling battery that boasts of pacer Akash Deep and spinner Shahbaz Ahmed. Easwaran will join the team in the evening (Monday).
In the last five Ranji Trophy encounters, Bengal have drawn three games with the first innings lead and have won one as well as lost one game.
The hosts batting has looked wobbly with top-order misfiring on most occasions. Young opening duo of Manender Singh and Yash Kothari has shown promise and all eyes will be on them as to how they respond to the challenge when so much is at stake for Rajasthan. This year, left-arm pacers Aniket Choudhary and Tanveer Ul-Haq have been decent, but have not delivered like they did last season. To rev up the bowling unit, comeback hero Rituraj Singh and left-arm spinner Shubham Sharma have done exceptionally well to keep the momentum going.
Openers' performance is equally worrying for the Bengal side so far. The visitors have been highly dependent upon their middle-order batters, particularly seasoned Manoj Tiwary, who slammed his maiden triple century against Hyderabad only a fortnight ago.
The pitch sports a greenish tinge and both the teams would want to extract maximum benefit out of it on Day One that would come with winning the toss.
Bengal are placed third in the Elite Group 'A' with 20 points while Rajasthan is placed seventh with 16 points. On paper, Rajasthan is no match to the stature of Bengal who knows better the pressure of competing in an 'elite' group but no team can be taken lightly, especially when they are playing in their own backyard.