Only nine overs were possible on Day III of the Bengal-Chhattisgarh Ranji Trophy clash at Eden Gardens. Right through the day, overhead conditions were so gloomy that play on Sunday could not get underway before 3.35pm.
For Bengal, a win in this game was vital in order to bolster their prospects of a knockout berth. But in the current situation, all that they are hoping for are three points at least.
Once the umpires seemed satisfied with the light and signalled for play to resume, Bengal wasted no time to declare their first innings on the overnight total of 381/8. Thereafter, pacer Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal accounted for Chhattisgarh opener Eknath Kerkar before off-spinner Karan Lal trapped Rishabh Tiwari lbw for two crucial wickets at the fag end of the day.
If play does begin in time on Monday — the final day of the contest — Bengal will certainly be pressing for the first-innings lead to ensure themselves those three points. But going by the weather forecast, Monday morning too could be cloudy.
So anxious were Bengal that they were even ready to begin Sunday’s proceedings with Karan and one other part-time spinner. But that prospect too wasn’t possible since on-field umpires Anand Ovalekar and Saurabh Dhote hadn’t checked in the light meter the benchmark for spinners when it was getting darker the last hour of Day I.
Brief scores: Bengal 381/8 decl. Chhattisgarh 27/2 (SS Jaiswal 1/0, K. Lal 1/0). At stumps, Day III.
Pujara’s 20,000
All-rounder Chirag Jani took 5/51 as Saurashtra registered their first win, beating Vidarbha by 238 runs in Nagpur on Sunday. Veteran Saurashtra batter Cheteshwar Pujara, during his innings of 66, became only the fourth Indian batter to score 20,000 first-class runs after legends Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.
