Much of Bengal cricket over the past two seasons has been about the advent of in-form young turks Manoj Tewari and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala. In what is the ultimate acid test for the twosome on the fifth and last day of the their Ranji Trophy semi-final clash, Paras Mhambrey’s boys are looking up to the duo as Bengal chase 236 runs tomorrow, with eight wickets in hand, in their bid for a second Ranji final berth on the trot.Having knocked off 71/2 on a slow, unresponsive Eden Gardens wicket by stumps on Day Four — Bengal were set at victory target of 307 — it’s now up to Tewari and Jhunjhunwala to lead the charge tomorrow morning. Karnataka, who conceded a lead of 149 runs, need no less than an outright win here to walk into the final.Beginning the run-chase half an hour before tea, Bengal lost openers Subhamoy Das (30) and Arindam Das (27) to some excellent, disciplined bowling by speedster Balachandra Akhil. Karnataka, who made up for the 89-run horror outing in the first innings with a formidable 455 in the second essay, will look up to the pace trio of Akhil (2/35), Vinay Kumar and Srinivasa Dhananjaya, and spinners Sunil Joshi and Chandrashekar Raghu to exploit the last day’s conditions to dismiss Deep Dasgupta & Co.Even as Karnataka appear to hold a clear advantage at this stage, the credit should go to the dogged manner in which the visiting lower order responded to captain Yere Goud’s call earlier today. The Bengal team meanwhile was docked 10 per cent of their match fee while skipper Dasgupta was fined 20 per cent for slow over rate. Brief scores: Karnataka 89 & 455 in 168.5 overs (B Chipli 95, C Raghu 85, Y Goud 72, R Bose 4/116, S Sarkar 4/87) vs Bengal 238 & 71/2 in 35 overs (M Tewari batting 9, A Jhunjhunwala batting 5).Another dubious Ranji record!Kolkata: It’s usually fast bowlers who get hauled up for running on the danger area of the pitch. In a bizarre incident, and what veterans reckon as unprecedented in recent first-class cricket history in India, a Karnataka batsman was disallowed a single because his batting partner ran dangerously on the pitch despite warning. The dubious distinction goes to the duo of Karnataka skipper Yere Goud and No 11 Srinavasa Dhananjaya. With the Karnataka second innings score at 446/9, Goud flicked off-spinner Sourasish Lahiri down to the fielder at fine-leg. Even as he took a single run the usual way, non-striker Dhananjaya, debuting in this match, ran straight down the pitch, leaving the umpires S Ranade and Sanjeev Rao fuming. Explaining that the previous batsman, No 10 Vinay Kumar, too made a similar offence half an hour back for which he was warned, the umpires signaled to the scorers, ruling the single void. — Nadim Siraj
