Utpal stars as Bengal defeat Bihar

Veteran left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee's best limited overs bowling performance helped Bengal to overcome Bihar in the penultimate encounter of the East Zone One-Day Ranji Trophy tournament at the Eden Gardens today. Chasing a paltry total of 114, Bengal suffered a scare before getting home by five wickets. Chatterjee had figures of five wickets for four runs in 5.2 overs. Bengal will now meet Orissa in their final group league match tomorrow. That game will decide the team to qualify for the Wills Trophy.

On a pitch that was uneven and had variable bounce, Bihar won the toss and decided to bat. Initially, they were rocked by Lakshmi Ratan Shukla's spell who sent back three batsmen with only nine runs on the board. The Bihar side was rescued to an extent by Kunjan Sharan and Rajiv Ranjan, who added 71 runs for the fifth wicket.

However, Chaterjee changed the complexion of the game with a superb bowling display. Introduced in the 29th over, Chatterjee had Sharan bowled with one that came in with the arm. The rest of the batsmen then failed to cope with him on a pitch where the ball bounced and kept low. From 110 for four, Bihar lost their remaining six wickets in 45 balls for the addition of only four runs.

The match seemed as good as over at this stage. But Bengal too were rocked initially by a controlled spell of medium pace bowling by Mohir Diwakar and Dhiraj Kumar. They bowled their full quota of 20 overs and had Bengal on the mat by dismissing four of their leading batsmen with only 52 runs on the board. Of the four however, Devang Gandhi and Srikkant Kalyani could have avoided playing the shots that brought their dimissals. Both Diwakar and Kumar bowled with a lot of fire. Bengal managed to recover through Rohan Gavaskar and Deep Dasgupta. Gavaskar only scored 23, but saw out the remainder of the overs that Diwakar and Kumar had. A lovely straight drive off Rana Choudhury was the shot of the match. However, he fell trying to flick Angushaman Raj over square leg, Nikhilesh Ranjan judging the catch to a nicety on the 30-yard circle. The Bihar bowlers also made Bengal's cause easier by giving away 34 extras. Of these, 25 came from no balls and wide balls.

The Bengal selectors have decided to replace opener Arijit Bose with leg-spinner Wrichik Mazumdar in their match against Orissa tomorrow. Lakshmi Ratan Shukla will open the innings. Skipper Devang Gandhi said that he to introduce more variety in the attack, Mazumdar has been included.