Ojha star in Bengal's win over Vidarbha

PTI

Bengal bowler Pragyan Ojha celebrates after dismissing Vidarbha batsman Ganesh Satish during a Ranji Trophy match in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha led the spirited charge for Bengal to help it accomplish the first outright win in two seasons. Ojha ended with a match haul of 11 wickets as Bengal downed visiting Vidarbha by 105 runs on the concluding day of the group-A Ranji Trophy match here at the Jadavpur University Salt Lake Campus ground on Tuesday.

Bengal, under the stewardship of its captain Manoj Tiwary, had on previous two occasions in the season slipped on achieving the target when they met Rajasthan (at home) and Haryana (visiting the latter at Lahli). The win finally came as its bowlers grabbed all the 10 Vidarbha in the final day while stopping the latter well ahead of the target of 297 runs. This fetched the host its first win after 13 matches. The six points that Bengal ensured from the win took it to the fourth position with 16 points, which also helped it tie with Assam and Vidarbha on points.

Ojha, one of the imports for Bengal this season, proved his merit finishing with match-winning match figures of 11 for 118. The left-arm spinner, who took seven wickets in Vidarbha’s first innings, led the Bengal attack once again to finish with four for 60 from 34 overs in Vidarbha’s second innings. Speedster Veer Pratap Singh gave Bengal a crucial breakthrough early in the day getting seasoned Wasim Jaffar trapped in front in the seventh delivery as the visitor started on the overnight score of three for no loss. Veer Pratap also gave the second breakthrough picking up the other opener Faiz Fazal in his very next over. With both the openers back in the pavilion with only 15 runs on the card, Vidarbha lost the resolve of chasing the target and was forced into a defensive mode. Ojha took over from this point to pack off the Vidarbha middle-order.

Only Ganesh Satish could stand up to the Bengal bowling attack while his colleagues on the other end led a procession to the rest room. Satish waged a grim battle against the host’s attack but his gritty 96 (201b, 11x4, 1x6) could not deny the later from getting the win in the end of the day. The only time Vidarbha’s batting looked good was when Satish shared a 67-run partnership with skipper S. Badrinath for the third wicket and a 56-run stand with Aditya Sarwate for the seventh wicket. The rest of the visitor’s batsmen could not do much on their turns. Young pacer Veer Pratap Singh complimented Ojha well and finished with a three-wicket haul.

The scores:

Bengal - 1st innings: 334

Vidarbha - 1st innings: 202

Bengal - 2nd innings: 164

Vidarbha – 2nd innings: Faiz Fazal c Mondal b Veer Pratap Singh9, Wasim Jafferlbw b Veer Pratap Singh3, Ganesh Satish lbw b Ojha 96, S. Badrinath c Goswami b Ojha3, Shalabh Shrivastava b Ojha 1, Shrikant Wagh c Goswami b Dinda 0, Amol Ubarhande c Goswami b Tiwary 8, Aditya Sarwate lbw b Shaw 24; Akshay Wakhare lbw b Ojha 1, Swapnil Bandiwar (not out) 3, Ravikumar Thakur c Goswami b Veer Pratap Singh 5; Extras (b-4, lb-5, nb-1): 10; Total (in 91.1 overs): 191.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-15, 3-82, 4-84, 5-85, 6-111, 7-167, 8-174, 9-183.

Bengal Bowling: Ashok Dinda 20-7-40-1, Pragyan Ojha 34-9-60-4, Veer Pratap Singh 12.1-3-23-3, Sayan Ghosh 8-2-27-0, Sayan Sekhar Mondal 5-3-9-0, Manoj Tiwary 9-1-17-1, Abhimanyu Easwaran 1-0-4-0, Pankaj Shaw 2-0-2-1.

Result: Bengal - 6 points; Vidarbha - 0 points.