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Rlys reach final destination without huffing
and puffing
S SANTHANAM
NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 17: As was
expected, Railways reached the final by beating Bengal by
virtue of their handsome 232-run first innings lead after
their five-day Ranji Trophy match meandered into a tame draw
at the Karnail Singh Stadium here this evening.
In the final, to be played at the same
venue from March 6, Railways will take on reigning champions
Baroda. It will thus be a repeat of last year’s final at Baroda.
After Bengal had been restricted to 325
yesterday in reply to the hosts’ first innings total of 557,
there was no interest left in the game. Railways used the
opportunity to have some more batting practice. While left-handed
opener Amit Pagnis failed for the second time in the match
to reach a three-figure mark - he was out for 98 following
his 81 in the first innings - Raja Ali remained unbeaten on
100 and shared a stand of 144 for the unbroken fourth wicket
with first innings centurion Yere Goud, who remained unbeaten
on 61.
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Scoreboard
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Railways (1st Innings): 557
Bengal (1st Innings): 325.
Railways (2nd Innings): S Bangar c A Chakraborty
b Utpal Chatterjee 62; A Pagnis c Utpal Chatterjee b S
Lahari 98; Tejinder Pal Singh c Utpal Chatterjee b S Lahari
33; Yere Goud not out 61; Raja Ali not out 100; Extras
(b2,lb3,nb8,w13): 26; Total : (for 3 wkts decl)
380.
Fall of wicket: 1-124, 2-175, 3-236.
Bowling: Sabbir Ali 16-4-47-0, Laxmi Ratan Shukla
17-5-41-0, S Lahiri 37-5-107-2, S Sanyal 4-0-23-0, R Gavaskar
20-2-70-0, Utpal Chatrterjee 35-3-87-1. |
Railways declared their second innings at
380/3 in the fifth mandatory over and the match was called
off at that stage.
The final day’s game was more of a ritual
being completed. With the Indian team to take on the touring
Zimbabwe for the first Test at Nagpur having been declared
yesterday, players from both teams went through their motions
on the final day.
With the BCCI informing the selected players
to report at Nagpur on Monday (Feb 18), Saurav Ganguly left
for Kolkata in the morning, even before commencement of the
final day’s play here. Sanjay Bangar left for Mumbai later
in the day to collect his playing kit while Deep Dasgupta
was scheduled to leave for Kolkata later in the evening for
the same purpose.
But the scheduling of the Ranji final in
the midst of the India-Zimbabwe one-day series will take away
much of the importance from such a big domestic event.
The two teams may miss the services of
at least one star player each — Sanjay Bangar and Zaheer Khan.
The first two one-dayers are scheduled for March 7 (Faridabad)
and March 10 (Mohali).
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