Anoof Pai (119 not out) scored his maiden first class hundred to bail Hyderabad out from a nightmarish situation and ensured one point for his side in their Ranji Trophy super league Group B encounter against Bengal at the Eden Gardens here today.Staring at an inevitable innings defeat at the start of the last day’s play, the visitors showed the right intent for the first time in four days as the overnight pair of Pai and Arjun Yadav, starting at 86/3, did a good job to negotiate the early morning jitters. They added 68 runs without taking any undue risk, before Yadav’s patience gave way to a poor shot. His square-cut of Murtaza Lodhgar was gleefully accepted by substitute Sourav Sarkar at short point. Sarkar fielding for Shib Shankar Paul had earlier dropped Yadav at mid-off when the player had tried an uppish drive. The slow nature of the wicket made it extremely difficult for stroke play.But if Bengal though that it was over there and then, they were wrong. Pai joined hands with Amol Shinde to frustrate the Bengal bowlers further. Both Sourasish Lahiri and Lodhgar were guilty of pitching it short and the Hyderabadi batsmen had no problem to handle them with élan. Bengal skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s gamble of bowling Manoj Tewari over also did not pay off as the visitors dominated the first two sessions completely. Shinde just got out before the tea break - Safi Ahmed latching on to a bat-pad effort at silly point off Lahiri. Frustrated with the day’s proceedings the Bengal boys were engaged in a mild altercation with Pai and debutant wicketkeeper Habeeb Ahmed over “time wasting”. But both the captains played down the matter and so did the two umpires SK Tarapore and VD Nerukar after the end of the match. “All these things happen at the heat of the moment. It was nothing serious. None of us are going to report or do anything further about it,” Tarapore said. Lodhgar on a comeback trail picked up Ahmed just after tea to notch his fifth wicket of the innings. However it was not enough and eventually both captains agreed to call off the match early. The hosts will definitely blame themselves to miss on an outright victory and had to be satisfied with only three points, while Hyderabad were happy to salvage one point from the game.Brief scores: Bengal 461 draw vs Hyderabad 227 & 302/6 in 115 overs (Pai 119 no, Yadav 53, Shinde 33; Lodhgar 5/68) .
