Ranji Trophy: Gharami’s chanceless ton keeps Bengal in the hunt against Andhra

Gharami’s chanceless ton keeps Bengal in the hunt against Andhra

 Gharami’s industrious and chanceless century bailed Bengal out of trouble and enabled it to put up a fight against Andhra on the second day of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal at the Bengal Cricket Academy ground here on Saturday.

Resuming at 264 for six, Andhra finished its first innings at 295.

In reply, Bengal overcame a forgettable start to close the day at 199 for five.

Andhra seamers bowled an ideal line and length and got some movement to deny Bengal a good start. Nitish Kumar dealt an early blow by having Bengal skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran caught spectacularly at cover by S.K. Rasheed.

Sasikanth extracted help from the surface and bowled Sudip Chatterjee in his first over. He had Anustup Majumdar caught, with a feather touch getting confirmed by DRS, by substitute ‘keeper Revanth Reddy (owing to K.S. Bharat’s injury) at the stroke of lunch as Bengal was reduced to 43 for three.

Gharami (112 batting, 191b, 15x4) and Suraj Jaiswal showed application and steadied the boat. A focused Gharami played the ball on merit, equally valuing running between the wickets and hitting boundaries. He pulled, flicked and drove confidently, apart from sweeping the spinners well.