Bengal's task cut out against Pujara-fortified Saurashtra

Kolkata: Struggling to get their acts together, Bengal's task is cut out when they face group B leaders Saurashtra, who will be boosted by the return of India international Cheteshwar Pujara, in their Ranji Trophy match beginning here tomorrow.

Pujara, who featured against Rajasthan in the only match of the season, got back amongst runs and is fresh from a century against the West Indies in Sachin Tendulkar's farewell Test last week.

Leading the table with 11 points, Saurashtra come here on the back of a double century by their number six left-hander Aarpit Vasavada, against Uttar Pradesh in the last match.

The highlight of the match was Saurashtra's lower-order which performed handsomely with centuries from skipper Jaydev Shah and Kamlesh Makvana besides Vasavada's double ton.

Pujara's return will only calm the nerves as Saurashtra's run-hungry batsmen will look to make full use of the Eden wicket that eases out after the early morning moisture.

Saurashtra have an outright victory against Rajasthan in the opening match while they conceded first innings lead to the Railways in the second encounter.

After an inspiring three away points against Rajasthan, Bengal slipped at home against Madhya Pradesh to concede a first innings lead as their batting is yet to overcome the absence of Manoj Tiwary, something coach Ashok Malhotra lamented today.

"He would score about 800 runs every season, we have to find somebody to score as many runs," he said of Tiwary who had been ruled out because of an injury.

The coach, however, said they were confident to put up a good show and added they would retain the XI that played against MP.

In such a scenario, Bengal batsmen will draw some confidence from the fact that their top five scored some runs in the second essay against MP to avoid a defeat.

Bengal have brought in uncapped Koushik Ghosh who batted long at the nets, but it is unlikely for him to get his maiden Ranji cap tomorrow.

With a green top on offer, it will be interesting to see how a struggling Ashok Dinda utilises the condition as was seen in the last match where veteran Sib Shankar Paul had the workload with the other two seamers not getting enough.

Bengal have five points from three matches.

Teams (from)

Bengal: Laxmi Ratan Shukla (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Arindam Das, Rohan Banerjee, Anustup Majumdar, Sandipan Das, Subhamoy Das, Sourav Sarkar, Saurashish Lahiri, Sib Shankar Paul, Ashok Dinda, Arnab Nandi, Iresh Saxena, Koushik Ghosh and Monojit Ghosh.

Saurashtra: Jaydev Shah (c), Sitanshu Kotak, Sagar Jogiyani (wk), Cheteshwar Pujara, Sheldon Jackson, Aarpit Vasavada, Chirag Jani, Kamlesh Makwana, Vishal Joshi, Dharmendra Jadeja, Abhishek Bhat, Bhushan Chauhan, Shaurya Sanandia, Sandip Maniyar and Nayan Doshi.

Umpires: K Srinath, Ravi Subramanyam; Match Referee: Amit Sharma.

Tough test awaits Viru, Gauti on a seamer-friendly Roshnara

Tough test awaits Viru, Gauti on a seamer-friendly Roshnara

New Delhi: In their bid to log full points at home, hosts Delhi will be taking on Haryana on a grassy Roshnara track in their fourth Group A League encounter of the Ranji Trophy starting tomorrow.

With Ishant Sharma back in the squad, Delhi in all likelihood will field a battery of fast bowlers against Haryana, who are led by paceman Harshal Patel.

Apart from Ishant, Parvinder Awana and Ashish Nehra are suppose to form a three-pronged attack with Rajat Bhatia complementing them. In case Nehra needs rest, it could be either Sumit Narwal or Pawan Suyal filling in his place.

Delhi are currently in seventh position with three points from three matches, while Haryana are placed fifth with six points from three outings.

While skipper Gautam Ganbhir has shown some signs of returning to form with twin 50s in both innings against Mumbai, Virender Sehwag would like to get one substantial knock under his belt having scored only 60 in four innings so far.

Having been dropped from the BCCI Annual Contracts' List, it is an ideal platform for Sehwag to remind the selectors that he can still be a match-winner on a given day.

For Delhi, it has been a rough ride so far with first match against Jharkhand being a complete wash-out followed by a narrow first innings lead conceded to Gujarat in the second away game.

The match against defending champions Mumbai was an exciting one where the first innings scores were tied, which meant that Delhi got a point each from all three games.

Delhi's batting has been dependent largely on veteran Mithun Manhas, who has scored century in both away games. Former India U-19 skipper Unmukt Chand also showed signs of returning to form with a second innings hundred, although the match had ended as a contest by that time.

The toss-up for the spinner's slot will be between Varun Sood and Manan Sharma with the latter having an edge due to better batting credentials.

For Haryana, a lot will depend on how their seamers perform in the absence of spearhead Mohit Sharma, who is currently on national duty.