‘Work horse’ Tiwary help Bengal pile up a big score : If the young Abhimanyu excelled on Day 1 in the encounter between Bengal and Uttar Pradesh at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, it was the seasoned campaigner and the ‘work horse’ Manoj Tiwary, Bengal skipper, hogged the limelight.
Losing company of the young Abhi (142, 457m, 285b, 21*4) with the team score reading 338 runs for the loss of 4 wickets, Tiwary took the mantle on him and in the company of the lower order batsmen, added another 128 runs.
He added 44 runs for the fifth wicket along with Pankaj Shaw (20), 60 runs for the seventh wicket alongwith Aamir Gani (12).
Having been at the crease for 257 minutes, facing 115 deliveries and sending the ‘red cherry’ to the ropes 15 times, Manoj registered his 22nd First Class century. His was the last wicket to fall at his personal score of 110 runs, caught by Piyush Chawla, giving Ankit Rajpoot his fourth victim.
The Bengal skipper stood his ground and single-handedly helped his team pile up the runs.
For UP, Kuldeep Yadav was the most successful bowler, picking up the wickets of Pankaj Shaw, Srivats Goswami, Aamir Gani, Pragyan Ojha and Ashok Dinda. In the process he gave away 115 runs in 37 overs.
While Yadav was successful in cleaning up the lower middle order and the tail, Ankit Rajpoot accounted for the top order batsmen, who had contributed the most to the team’s total.
Beginning the chase, UP struggled to stay afloat, losing three wickets for just 49 runs on the board. However, Umang Sharma and the young batting sensation, Sarfaraz Khan steadied the innings by adding 77* runs for the unbroken fourth wicket partnership.
At the end of day’s play, Sharma, having registered his 9th First Class half-century, remained unbeaten on 57* runs with the help of 9 fours while Khan, on the threshold of his second First Class half-ton, remained unbeaten on 43* runs, studded with 5 fours and a solitary six.
For Bengal, Ashok Dinda claimed two wickets while Sayan Ghosh accounted for Almas Shukat (1).
UP trail by 340 runs with seven wickets in hand.
