By Admin 
Bottom-placed Tripura turned underdog energy into a demolition service, yet Bengal never saw the invoice coming, as the Ranji Trophy third-round fixture here ended in a draw with the host pocketing the first-innings lead and, in turn, three points in dramatic fashion on Tuesday.
For Bengal, a strong quarterfinal favourite from Elite Group C, it would have felt like a punch in the gut. This, after all, was only its second draw in 18 First Class games against Tripura since the North-East side’s inception in 1985-86.
Centurion Hanuma Vihari’s elegant batsmanship and Manisankar Murasingh’s silky strokeplay on the penultimate day set things up magnificently for the final three sessions. With three wickets in hand, Tripura needed 64 to claim the innings lead.
Hanuma Vihari.
| Photo Credit:
Santadeep Dey
Abishek Porel wasted no time in throwing the new ball to Mohammed Shami, four overs post resumption. However, that did little to put the wind up Murasingh, who breathed life into an enervated dugout with boundaries.
Vihari fell against the passage of play, having failed to get his pads out of the way in the 90th over. With Tripura still 20 away from Bengal’s mark, Abishek’s boys would have thought they had a foot in the door. However, a lack of homework on local club-cricket star Rana Datta, who isn’t a mug with the bat, cost Bengal two points.
Once the lead was in the bag, Murasingh was handed carte blanche. A heave over midwicket off Shahbaz Ahmed’s bowling brought up his fifth FC hundred in front of a doting home crowd.
They would have hoped for lightning to strike twice when Bengal lost three men — and almost a fourth in Shahbaz — for 13. Hrituraj Ghosh Roy, having dropped the second catch of this game, had to watch Shahbaz get a fifty before the teams shook hands for a draw.
The scores: Bengal — 1st innings: 336.
Tripura — 1st innings: Bikram Kumar Das b Kaif 19, Hrituraj Ghosh Roy b Ishan 5, Sridam Paul b Kaif 6, Hanuma Vihari lbw b Ishan 141, Bikramjit Debnath lbw b Kaif 0, Swapnil Singh st. Abishek b Shahbaz 4, Sentu Sarkar lbw b Rahul 20, Vijay Shankar c Abishek b Kaif 34, Manisankar Murasingh (not out) 102, Rana Datta b Rahul 27, Abhijit Sarkar b Ishan 1; Extras: (nb-3, b-10, lb-9, w-4): 26; Total (in 103.2 overs): 385.
Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-29, 3-35, 4-35, 5-53, 6-93, 7-200, 8-316, 9-377.
Bengal bowling: Shami 25-3-76-0, Ishan 23.2-6-72-3, Kaif 24-4-79-4, Shahbaz 19-0-84-1, Rahul 12-0-55-2.
Bengal — 2nd innings: Sudip Kumar Gharami lbw Rana 0, Kazi Junaid Saifi lbw b Abhijit 0, Shakir Habib Gandhi c Hrituraj b Abhijit 3, Anustup Majumdar (not out) 34, Shahbaz Ahmed (not out) 51; Extras: (lb-2): 2; Total (for three wkts. in 25 overs): 90.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-13.
Tripura bowling: Rana 4-2-8-1, Abhijit 6-3-11-2, Murasingh 2-0-4-0, Bikramjit 4-0-20-0, Swapnil 5-0-23-0, Sridam 2-0-8-0, Bikram 1-0-3-0, Vijay 1-0-11-0.