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Cricket
Bengal in semifinals
By Our Special Correspondent
KOLKATA, FEB. 9.The Bengal-Gujarat Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match ended in a draw on the fifth and final day at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday. Bengal moved into the semifinals by virtue of its 32-run first innings lead and would meet last year's runner-up Railways at Delhi on February 13.
Bengal resumed its second innings with overnight total of 279 for three. It added 204 runs and declared the innings just before tea at the total of 483. This meant, the host set for Gujarat an impossible target of 516 to win. When the stumps were drawn after the seventh mandatory over, Gujarat had finished at 69 for five.
The fifth day's play did not have any competitive edge as the home team's Subhomoy Das and Sanjib Sanyal added 162 runs for the fifth wicket to kill whatever remote chance Gujarat had in this game. In the process, Das helped himself with a century (107, 258m, 196b, 12x4) and first innings centurion Sanyal also prospered getting 92 (166m, 132b, 11x4). But for the tragic run out owing to Das not sticking to the basics, Sanyal would have got his 100 as well.
When Das was run out, Bengal skipper Rohan Gavaskar closed the innings.
Sanyal triggered a top order collapse in the Gujarat's second innings removing opener Hem Jashipura and Niraj Patel in the second and sixth overs. Gavaskar, coming on to bowl medium pace, sent back Pallav Vora in the 11th over, it looked like Gujarat was falling apart. Though Gujarat lost Kirat Damani and opener Nilesh Modi to debutant Amitava Chakraborty's untested leg-spin, Tejas Varsani and Shyamal Bhatt made sure no further damage was caused.
Both captain Rohan Gavaskar and coach W.V. Raman expressed happiness for the way the youngsters played so far in the tournament. Raman's effort to make this team play as a unit had desired result as Bengal made it to the semifinals of the National champion after 1993-94. Gavaskar thought Railways would be a tough opponent, Raman felt this Bengal team had the ability to hold its own in the next game.
Bengal retained the same squad for the semifinal game though Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was yet to be fully fit after the bout of viral fever.
The scores: Bengal-1st innings: 353.
Gujarat - 1st innings: 321.
Bengal- 2nd innings: A. Chakraborty c Vora b Bhatt 10; D. Dasgupta lbw b Parmar 84; D. Gandhi c sub (Salil Yadav) b Mehta 82; Rohan Gavaskar c sub (Yadav) b Bhatt 78; Subhomoy Das (run out) 107; Sanjib Sanyal (run out) 92; Laxmi Ratan Shukla (not out) 16. Extras (b-6, lb-4, nb-4): 14. Total (for 6 decl.in 134.4 overs) 483.
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-165, 3-208, 4- 286, 5-448, 6-483.
Gujarat bowling: L. Patel 22.4-4-51-0, B. Mehta 44-11-146-1; S. Bhatt 22-4-77-2; K. Patel 32-5-131-0, K. Damani 10-2-42-0, M. Parmar 4-1-26-1.
Gujarat- 2nd innings: Nilesh Modi c Gandhi b Chakraborty 29; Hem Jashipura lbw b Sanyal 0; Niraj Patel c Dasgupta b Sanyal 6; Pallav Vora lbw b Gavaskar 5; Kirat Damani b Chakraborty 16; Tejas Varsani (not out) 9; Shyamal Bhatt (not out) 1. Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-1): 3. Total (for 5 in 29 overs): 69.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-2, 3-29, 4-57, 5-64.
Bengal bowling: Shabir Ali 4-1-15-0, Sanjib Sanyal 6-3-8-2, Rohan Gavaskar 10-4-19-1, Sourashish Lahiri 4-0-15-0; Chakraborty 4-1-10-2; Subhomoy Das 1-1-0-0.
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