Saurashtra vice-captain Arpit Vasavada with his brilliant batting of unbeaten 81 took his team closer to their second title on the second day of the Ranji Final against Bengal on Friday. Back in the year 2020, Vasavada’s 106 handed Saurashtra match-winning first-innings lead in the final in Rajkot, once again haunted Bengal bowlers, sharing two key partnerships with Sheldon Jackson (59) and Chirag Jani (57 not out). Saurashtra were 317/5 at close on day two in reply to Bengal’s 174 all out.
The final clash is being hosted by Bengal as they secured more points than their fellow finalist in the group stage. The previous time these two teams faced each other in a Ranji final was back in the 2019-2020 edition. Saurashtra had won the tournament and finished as champions, while Bengal had finished second best.
The duo of Vasavada and Jani, who were unbroken in a 113-run partnership, took the team’s command during the post-tea session and extended their first innings lead to 143. Bengal took around 46 minutes to get draw the first blood in the morning session. By then, overnight batter Harvik Desai (50) got to his 12th half-century. Mukesh Kumar and Ishan Porel dismissed Desai and Sakariya in addition to just eight runs but from thereon Vasavada seized control with Jackson in a 95-run partnership.
Akash Deep erred in line and bowled mostly on the fifth and sixth stump. On the other hand, Mukesh was negated well by a resolute batting by the overnight duo of Desai and Sakariya. Desai was the first wicket to fall when he failed to read the line as a Mukesh Kumar’s delivery. Akash Deep drifted the ball away to pads, giving freebies. Jackson and Vasavada both got off with elegant cover drives and there was no looking back.
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