Bengal pacers continued to perform admirably well as they ran through the Haryana batting once again to put the visitor in sight of a win, in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A’ match at the Chaudhary Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium, Lahli on Thursday.
Enjoying an impressive lead of 256 runs after ending Haryana’s first innings at 163, Bengal asked the host to ‘follow-on’ at the start of the third day.
Haryana made a promising start and appeared to be heading for a big score before the Bengal pacers found their rhythm to reduce the former to 177 for seven at the end of the third day’s action.
With the final day’s action remaining, Bengal still enjoys a 79-run lead leaving the Haryana tail-enders to fend for themselves.
Bengal pacers led by Akash Deep (three for 37), Ishan Porel (two for 36) and Mukesh Kumar (two for 53) demolished the Haryana batting order to put their team just three wickets away from a famous ‘away’ win. After being asked to “follow-on”, Haryana openers Yuvraj Singh (78) and Chaitanya Bishnoi (55) got Haryana off to a flying start and tackled the Bengal pace attack with confidence.
They put up an opening stand of 129 runs as Haryana appeared to have the foundation of a big score. But the Bengal pacers were rewarded for their disciplined approach as Ishan Porel got rid of set batter Bishnoi to find the vital breakthrough in the 50th over.
This virtually set off a landslide of wickets as Bengal bowlers found success at regular intervals and picked up seven wickets in just 48 runs. Sumit Kumar (8) and Amit Rana (0) remained unbeaten as bad light forced early stumps with only 69 overs bowled in the day.
