A captains knock from Tiwary

Sourav Ganguly was given the reins in Tiwarys absence and he continues to lead even after the youngster returned from India duty. But if there was a captains knock that was played on Thursday,it came off Tiwarys bat.

Ganguly made 50 and added 70 runs with Tiwary for the fifth wicket. But it was Tiwarys effort his fourth consecutive century that must be classified as a class act.

When he made a cracker of a 98 against Mumbai in the 2007 final,Tiwary had impressed one and all. But it was not until this season that he showed the hunger and discipline needed to make big scores consistently. Thursdays effort,his first outing since his maiden ODI century,indicated that the 24-year-old wasnt taking anything for granted anymore.

Tiwary scored 134 in the tournament opener against Gujarat and followed that up with a 267 against Madhya Pradesh.

The wicket at the Eden Gardens presented a challenging proposition for the batsmen. The Delhi medium-pacers bowled 77 of the 84 overs on the day on the seamer-friendly track. For over seven hours and 36 minutes,a period in which he faced 321 deliveries,Tiwary hardly put a foot wrong.

When Ganguly was batting along with Tiwary,there was hope that the veteran and the young Turk could take Bengal to a position of strength. However,the belief was short-lived. Ganguly was dropped on 19 by Shikhar Dhawan at second slip. In the process of spilling the catch,Dhawan also injured his fingers and didnt field for the rest of the day a setback for Delhi when they bat again.

After the reprieve,Ganguly hit some crisp boundaries his trademark off-drives and a couple of pull shots. But his cameo ended when he got out to a half-tracker that had the words hit me written all over it. The cut that Ganguly played off Pradeep Sangwan went straight to Yogesh Nagar at gully. The veteran batsman hung his head in frustration and disappointment.

Lower-order miss out

The lower-order,however, couldnt convert their starts into bigger scores.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla (31) got out to a poor shot. He was earlier cleaned up by Sangwan off a no ball and was then dropped by Ankur Julka at first slip. But two balls later he was out,trying to attempt a cross-batted heave over mid-wicket to a bouncer from Parvinder Awana.

Subhomoy Das (36),on his comeback for Bengal,looked solid,till a Sangwan yorker breached his defences with the score reading 316 for 7.

But Iresh Saxena stayed at the wicket for 91 minutes to make his 12 runs and,under Tiwarys guidance,took the team closer to the target. His dismissal at the fag end of the day tilted the balance back in Delhis favour.

Delhi didnt bowl badly through the day,though. Sangwan bagged four wickets and moved the ball well. Awana scalped two and hit the deck hard. Only Tiwary stood in their path,like an immovable object.

Brief scores: Delhi 392 vs Bengal 358/8 (Manoj Tiwary 163 batting,Sourav Ganguly 50; Pradeep Sangwan 4/95)