Calcutta: A home match is gone without a point coming to their kitty, but Bengal are not cribbing about the outcome. Rather, they are counting the positives from their drawn Round III Ranji Trophy Super League match against Gujarat. After all, it’s still wide and open with still three matches — versus Maharashtra (from December 24), Hyderabad (from January 2) and Rajasthan (from January 10) to go.

On the brighter side, Bengal did have some share of joy, with the Laxmi Ratan Shukla-Rohan Gavaskar’s 138-run sixth-wicket partnership topping the list. Incidentally, Rohan (74) ended his lean patch this season, and with Laxmi (93) chipping in Bengal’s batting line-up — which already boasts of Manoj Tewari, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Deep Dasgupta — will just hope to get better.

At the post-match briefing, Deep did not hesitate to mention about the plus-points. Though he admitted that Bengal were “outplayed” in all departments, Deep said: “We should not take the credit away from Rohan and Laxmi, who took it so close. Eklak (Ahmed) bowled brilliantly and with Ranadeb (Bose) also troubling the batsmen, we should not be having any problem.”

Laxmi also gave Bengal another reason to rejoice. Having bowled after a gap of two seasons, Laxmi (two for 51 from 14 overs) will give Deep another option.

There could be another good news coming Bengal’s way if Shib Shankar Paul passes a fitness test this weekend. The strike bowler has been out of the Bengal squad after sustaining a knee injury last season.

“We’re definitely missing his (Paul’s) calibre… His comeback will be a bonus, but before that we’ve to see whether he’s ready to bowl 25 hours or not… he’s training hard (almost three sessions a day). His fitness will be assessed during a club-level match,” said Deep.

But Deep did also add that his team will have to improve in all departments. “In Dheeraj (Jadhav), S. Sriram, (Hrishikesh) Kanitkar and Sai (Sairaj Bahutule), Maharashtra have a good batting line-up. We can’t take them lightly.”