Ranji Trophy: Bengal brushes apart Jharkhand, makes semis

Bengal defeated Jharkhand by 9 wickets on the fourth day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match on the Eden Gardens right here to superior to the semifinals.

Jharkhand, resuming its second innings from 162 for seven, resisted Bengal’s push for victory for about 90 minutes. It managed an combination of 221 to set a goal of 67, which the house aspect chased down in about an hour. Bengal will meet defending champion Madhya Pradesh in a repeat of the earlier season’s last-four conflict.

Mukesh Kumar accounted for Shahbaz Nadeem within the first over of the day. Thereafter, Bengal bowlers lacked self-discipline and the Jharkhand tail wagged longer than anticipated. Overnight batter Supriyo Chakraborty and Rahul Shukla batted with delight and confirmed constructive intent to assemble runs with out getting slowed down by strain. They added 56 runs for the ninth wicket to delay the inevitable.

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Having taken two essential wickets in Bengal’s first essay, Supriyo (41 n.o., 83b, 7×4) confirmed his tremendous all-round expertise. He performed a preventing knock, comprising properly executed boundaries and well-calculated singles to guard much less skillful batters. He was Jharkhand’s second-highest run-getter within the second essay.

The partnership was damaged when Rahul was run out within the sixty fourth over, which additionally witnessed the autumn of final man Ashish Kumar with Akash Ghatak recording his greatest bowling efficiency (three for 21).

Bengal misplaced Kazi Saifi to Rahul within the fourth over, however in-form batters Abhimanyu Easwaran (28 n.o., 31b, 4×4) and Sudip Gharami (26 n.o., 30b, 4×4, 1×6), who was let off on 18 by Shahbaz Nadeem off his personal bowling, collected 48 fast runs and ensured their crew’s win within the prolonged first session.

“Our aim is to win the Ranji Trophy. We have some areas of improvement, though,” mentioned Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary.