Railways’ final stop

Maybe Mohammed Shami’s absence — the fast bowler left for Dhaka for the World T20 — prompted the Bengal camp to take a defensive route. It was unusual, for all their success at home this season was based on playing in seamer-friendly conditions. In Shami’s absence, Ashok Dinda was expected to take the lead. But the medium pacer lacked the change of pace required to get the better of the conditions.

Dinda also lacked support from the other end as Laxmi Ratan Shukla wasted the new ball and Veer Pratap Singh, three late wickets notwithstanding, looked non-threatening. Railways’ openers Amit Paunikar and Shivakant Shukla started the chase in aggressive fashion, adding 109 for the first wicket in 21.4 overs. It was the end of the contest.

Paunikar, the aggressor

Paunikar played the role of an aggressor. He started off with back-to-back boundaries off the Bengal captain in the second over. Then he slapped Dinda to the point boundary. And as Veer Pratap came, Paunikar welcomed him with a boundary to square leg. He raced to his half-century in just 52 balls and by the time he got out for 83 (86 balls), Railways were almost through.

Shukla anchored the other end. When Paunikar got out, he was batting on 14 off 45 balls. He upped his strike-rate a bit after that and remained unbeaten on 56 in 88 balls. They suffered mild jitters in the middle as four wickets fell for 31 runs, but the target was always within reach.

Earlier, Bengal won the toss and elected to bat but lost wickets at regular intervals. This was not a pitch that encouraged big hits but all Bengal batsmen, except for Manoj Tiwary, refused to grind it out. Tiwary made 61 off 95 balls with just one four, but he played a lone hand.

For Railways, Chanderpal Saini took three wickets with his slow medium pace, leg-spinner Karn Sharma and left-arm spinner Ashish Yadav bagged two wickets apiece. Medium pacer Anureet Singh once again stood out, with one for 22 in eight overs.

Brief scores: Bengal 185 all out in 47.4 overs (M Tiwary 61, S Goswami 38; CP Saini 3/25, A Yadav 2/25) lost to Railways 188/5 in 38.2 overs (A Paunikar 83, S Shukla 56*; VP Singh 3/54) by 5 wickets

Another ton by uthappa

Meanwhile, Robin Uthappa slammed a 135-ball 133 to set up Karnataka’s 21-run win over a spirited Jharkhand as the Ranji and Irani Trophy champions stormed into the Vijay Hazare Trophy final at the JU second campus ground in Salt Lake on Friday.

Ishank Jaggi kept Jharkhand in the hunt with a belligerent ton, hitting 144 from 121 balls in an 87-run partnership with skipper Saurabh Tiwary (47) but Karnataka skipper Vinay Kumar (4/75) took two wickets in two balls after H S Sharath dismissed the centurion to restrict Jharkhand to 302/9 in the stipulated 50 overs.

In pursuit of an unprecedented hattrick of titles at the domestic level, Karnataka will face Railways in the one-day tournament summit clash at Eden Gardens Sunday.
Brief scores: Karnataka 323/6 (R Uthappa 133, L Rahul 67, M Agarwal 66; R Shukla 3/59) beat Jharkhand 302/9 (I Jaggi 141, S Tiwary 47; V Kumar 4/75, Abhimanyu Mithun 3/52) by 21 runs.