Ranadeb Bose took three wickets

Lucknow: Bengal bounced back strongly on Day II of the Ranji Trophy final against Uttar Pradesh here at the K.D. Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium.

The visiting bowlers first did a wonderful job to restrict UP to 387 and then reached 138 for two at close on Monday.

Opener Arindam Das gave a glimpse of the team’s batting strength with an unbeaten 59. Keeping him company was nightwatchman Shiv Sagar Singh on 12.

Arindam showed his class on a low-bounce wicket, batting with grit and determination to counter everything Praveen Kumar and Shalabh Srivastava had to offer. The UP pacers tried several bouncers also, but couldn’t break the right-hander’s concentration.

Arindam, who has so far faced 123 balls and struck four boundaries, launched the innings in style with Subhamoy Das. The two put on 68 before Srivastava shattered Subhamoy’s stumps in the first over after tea with an in-cutter. His 34 came in 68 balls and included six powerful hits to the fence.

The in-form Avishek Jhunjhunwala made a breezy 22 (off 27 balls with three fours) before being trapped leg-before by young leggie Piyush Chawla. The verdict went against Subhamoy despite the batsman being well forward.

Bengal are still need 249 shy of the UP total but if their batsmen show the kind of application they did on Monday, they can surely get the vital first-innings lead.

Morning showed the day for Bengal as their seamers Shib Shankar Paul and Ranadeb Bose, who bowled well in tandem to trigger an UP collapse. From an imposing 299 for three, UP were skittled out for the addition of 89 runs, 45 minutes after the lunch.

Ranadeb (three for 86) and Shib Shankar (three for 125) accounted for six of the seven wickets to fall on Monday, while off-spinner Sourashish Lahiri (two for 76) took the other. Shiv Sagar got both his victims on Day I.

Bengal took the new ball in the morning and it paid dividends. The experienced Rizwan Shamshad was the first to go, caught by Arindam off Ranadeb without adding to his overnight score of 18.

Suresh Raina worked his way from 61 to 90 before the left-hander emulated skipper Mohammed Kaif in missing a century. The young Raina was caught by Shiv Sagar of Shib Shankar.

Three wickets (fifth, sixth and seventh) fell on the score of 333. Former captain Gyanendra Pandey (26) and Piyush Chawla (22) put up some resistance with a 37-run collaboration.

But it didn’t take long for Bengal to lop off the UP tail. Ranadeb, Shib Shankar and Sourashish shared the last three wickets to bring Bengal right back into the game.