da bet vitoria： Bengal restricted Delhi to 200 for six on the opening day of theirRanji Trophy Super league tie at the Eden Gardens today
Sakyasen Mittra16-Feb-2000Bengal restricted Delhi to 200 for six on the opening day of theirRanji Trophy Super league tie at the Eden Gardens today. A dourunbeaten 79 by opener Akash Chopra in 367 minutes enabled Delhi toreach the 200 mark in the last over of the day, as the Bengal bowlersbowled a tidy length and line. At one point of time, it had appearedthat Delhi would not reach even this figure as Saurav Ganguly,Laxmiratan Shukla and Utpal Chatterjee had them tottering at 137 withhalf the side back in the pavilion. But the three did not have anyother bowler to really back them up.However, even after praising the Bengal bowlers, one felt that theDelhi side were ultra defensive in their approach. They should haveplayed in a positive fashion after winning the toss and batting on apitch that really had no terrors. It was their approach that allowedthe Bengal bowlers to dictate terms. Even half volleys were pattedback in a friendly manner to the bowlers. Bengal had three otherbowlers namely medium pacer Sumit Panda, leg spinner Wrichik Mazumdarand the offie Sourashis Lahiri. The three combined to bowl 18 oversand did not inspire much confidence amongst their skipper.Ganguly replaced Panda after he had bowled three overs with the newball and immediately had Ashu Dani caught behind flashing to an awaygoing delivery. The batsman had then scored 21 in an openingpartnership of 45 in 14.4 overs. It was then that the Delhi batsmanwent into a shell. One drop Akash Malhotra made 34 in 91 minutes withfive fours.However, he perished trying to cut a Chatterjee and was bowled. It wasthen that Ganguly’s innovative captaincy came to play. Ajay Sharma hasalways been a compulsive puller and Ganguly placed a man two thirds ofthe way to the fence. Sharma pulled Ganguly for one four through midwicket and then perished in the very next over, hitting the pull downRohan Gavaskar’s throat.With Sharma’s departure for 11, the Delhi hopes of a 350 plus totaldisappeared. Then Shukla bowled his best spell of five overs in theday. He had Virendra Shewag and Mithun Minhas leg before withdeliveries that came back sharply. The former scored only five and thelatter failed to trouble the scorers. Wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiyacompiled a painstaking 17 in 77 minutes with one boundary of Shukla.He got out as a Chatterjee delivery bounced and turned on him. It hithim on the glove before it came to rest in Ganguly’s hand at firstslip. At close Nikhil Chopra on 22 with two boundaries was trying toresurrect the Delhi innings with Akash who has so far 11 hits to thefence. The best being a backfoot drive to the extra cover fence of thebowling of Ganguly.