JOIN USB Amit's all-round prowess and Aamir Gani's useful contribution at the rear propelled Bengal to a commanding position against defending champions Gujarat after the second day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal here.
In reply to Bengal's respectable first innings score of 354, beefed up by Aamir (49) and Amit (34), Gujarat were in a spot of bother at 180 for six.
After his contribution with the bat, Amit picked up three for 46 with his gentle medium pace to put the Ranji champions on the mat. He was ably supported by India U-19 Ishan Porel (2/55).
Openers perish
Gujarat lost their dependable opening duo of Priyank Panchal (4) and Samit Gohil (0) to Porel and Ashok Dinda, respectively, with only 17 runs on the board, but then controlled the proceedings due to Parthiv Patel (47) and Bharghav Merai (67).
Brief scores: At Jaipur: Bengal (O/n: 261/6): 354 all out in 111.5 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 129, Anustup Majumdar 94, Aamir Gani 49; Chintan Gaja 3-93, Ishwar Chaudhary 5-87) vs Gujarat: 180/6 in 59 overs (Bharghav Merai 67, Parthiv Patel 47; Ishan Porel 2-55, Bodupalli Amit 3-46).
At Vijayawada: Madhya Pradesh (O/n: 223/6): 338 all out 124.1 overs (Harpreet Singh Bhatia 107 n.o., Ankit Dane 59, Puneet Datey 35; Navdeep Saini 2-80, Vikas Mishra 3-58, Manan Sharma 4-46) vs Delhi: 180/2 in 51 overs (Kunal Chandela batting 73, Dhruv Shorey 78).
At Surat: Vidarbha (O/n: 45/3): 246 all out in 105.3 overs (Akshay Wadkar 53, Aditya Sarwate 36, Akshay Wakhare 27; K C Akshay 5-66, Jalaj Saxena 3-52) vs Kerala: 32/2 in 7 overs.