PTI
Kolkata, February 17
Three years after he dashed West Bengal’s hopes of winning the Ranji Trophy in the final, Arpit Vasavada came back to haunt them at the same stage again with an unbeaten 81 to take Saurashtra closer to their second title here today.
The Saurashtra vice-captain, whose 106 handed them a match-winning first-innings lead in the 2020 final in Rajkot, got under the skin of the West Bengal bowlers again by hitting 11 boundaries and sharing two key partnerships with Sheldon Jackson (59) and Chirag Jani (57 not out).
Vasavada and Jani, who were going strong with an unbroken 113-run partnership, boosted the run-rate in the post-tea session as Saurashtra extended their first-innings lead to 143.
At stumps, Saurashtra were 317/5 on Day 2 in reply to West Bengal’s 174 all out.
Their pace-heavy attack turning out to be a big let-down, West Bengal took 46 minutes to get the first breakthrough in the morning session.
By then, overnight batter Harvik Desai (50) had got to his 12th half-century in a dogged partnership with nightwatchman Chetan Sakariya, who saw off the first hour with a resolute eight off 45 balls.
Mukesh Kumar and Ishan Porel dismissed Desai and Sakariya, but Vasavada seized control with Jackson in a 95-run partnership that set the tone and took the team score past West Bengal’s 174.
Batting out Bengal
If head coach Niraj Odedra’s words are any indication, Saurashtra are looking to bat West Bengal out of the final on the third day.
“We got to bat a little bit longer. Basically we want to see through the first session (tomorrow), till lunch. If we can extend that till evening it would be better. The longer we bat, the better it would be,” Odedra said.
“The wicket also eased out a bit, it will be even better tomorrow. That’s how most of the wickets are in India, as moisture dries up. It’s still a long way,” he added.
Despite conceding a massive first-innings lead to the opponents, West Bengal’s coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla refused to believe that it was as good as over for them.
“There are still three more days left in the match. You have to think before giving a headline,” Shukla told reporters.
Brief scores: West Bengal 174 vs Saurashtra 317/5 in 87 overs (Vasavada 81*, Jackson 59; Mukesh 2/83, Porel 2/72).
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