da dobrowin： Bengal came close to snatching an improbable win against Delhi on thelast day of the Ranji Trophy Super League tie against Delhi at theEden Gardens on Saturday
Sakyasen Mittra19-Feb-2000Bengal came close to snatching an improbable win against Delhi on thelast day of the Ranji Trophy Super League tie against Delhi at theEden Gardens on Saturday.Needing 124 runs for an win in 13 overs, Bengal finally managed to get82 for four wickets when the captains decided to call offplay. Earlier, Delhi, in the face of some inspired bowling by SauravGanguly and Utpal Chatterjee, scored 261 in their secondinnings. Ganguly finished with five wickets and Chatterjee withfour. But sans the two, the Bengal bowling looked ordinary. Had theothers backed up Ganguly and Chatterjee to even some extent, Bengalwould have finished with eight points. As it is, they had five for thefirst innings lead while Delhi finished with three.Delhi were saved by a eighth wicket stand between Rahul Sanghvi andNikhil Chopra. They added 59 runs, but more importantly they made theruns off 160 balls. Sanghvi however had two lives. When on seven,Saba Karim dropped a difficult chance of the bowling of Laxmi RatanShukla and then four runs later he was dropped by Chatterjee atpoint. The hapless bowler again was Shukla.The match once more established Ganguly’s prowess as captain. He ledfrom the front and struck vital blows at the right moment to haveDelhi under pressure. He changed his bowlers at regular intervals.The only blemish on his part was to use leg spinner Wrichik Mazumdarfor only one over during the day. The manner in which he once moreoutwitted the rival captain Ajay Sharma was great to watch. Sharma, acompulsive puller and hooker, had fallen to Ganguly in the firstinnings in the square leg trap. This time, the moment, Sharma walkedin, Ganguly had a man two-thirds of the way to the fence. However,with Sharma expecting a bouncer, Ganguly bowled him the perfectoutswinger. Sharma, rooted to the backfoot, played away from his body,to be caught behind.Then again, while chasing, Ganguly came out to open the innings. Suchcommittment, is unusual amongst the current National players thesedays. He failed in his attempt, but his positive approach was enoughto draw 15,000 spectators to watch a Ranji Trophy game.At lunch, Delhi were 144 for five and Bengal were smelling avictory. But then Chopra and Sanghvi and later a last wicket standbetween Robin Singh (jr) and Mithun Minhas, thwarted theirattempts. Delhi were indebted to Mithun Minhas (46, 75m, 57b, 5×4,1×6), Nikhil Chopra (39, 86m, 76b, 5×4) and Sanghvi 20 (100m, 64b,3×4) for saving the match.An asking rate of virtually 10 an over was always going to bedifficult. And once, Ganguly left, bowled by Sanjay Gill for 17, theresult was a foregone conclusion. Devang Gandhi tried hisbest. However, he was out to a brilliant one handed catch by AkashChopra at long on of Gill for 28 of 27 balls.