Kolkata: Sudip Chatterjee missed out on a century by a whisker but his 98 and an unbeaten 82 from Sumanta Gupta helped Bengal recover from a precarious position to post 274/6 on Day 2 of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group C match against Uttarakhand, here Thursday.
The hosts are now leading by 61 runs with four wickets in hand, having bundled out Uttarakhand for 213 on the opening day.
Starting the day overnight score of eight for one, Bengal batters struggled against pacer Devendra Singh Bora, who wreaked havoc, having removed skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran for a first-ball duck on the opening day.
He accounted for Sudip Kumar Gharami (15) and Anustup Majumdar (35) as Bengal slumped to 63/3 before lunch.
Wicketkeeper Abishek Porel’s brief stay (21 off 40) ended soon after the break, leaving Bengal in trouble at 98/4. However, Chatterjee and Gupta stitched together a crucial 156-run stand for the fifth wicket that steadied the innings, blunting the bowling attack through the afternoon and evening sessions.
In Coimbatore, seamer Jatin Pandey picked up three wickets on debut to leave former champions Tamil Nadu tottering at 18/5 after Ishan Kishan’s 173 propelled Jharkhand to 419 all out in their Group A match.
At stumps on the second day, M Shahrukh Khan was batting on 4 and India U-19 star RS Ambrish, on his debut, was yet to open his account.
Jharkhand skipper Kishan, who ended the opening day unbeaten on 125, looked good for a double century until he was dismissed by Ambrish, having faced 247 balls while hitting 15 fours and six sixes.
The pair of Kishan and Sahil Raj added 214 runs for the seventh wicket to put them in a position of strength.
Meanwhile, Saurashtra left-arm spinner Dharmendrasinh Jadeja returned with impressive figures of 7/124 to single-handedly dismantle Karnataka, bowling the visitors out for 372 in their first innings on the second day of Group B match.
Resuming their innings at 29/5, Karnataka’s last five wickets could add just 77 runs as Jadeja wreaked havoc.
Half-centurion Smaran Ravichandran (77) added just 11 runs to his overnight score while veteran Shreyas Gopal (56 off 95) and Shikhar Shetty (41) made useful contributions to take Karnataka to 372.
On Wednesday, Devdutt Padikkal (96, off 141balls) and Karun Nair (73 off 126 balls, ) added 146 runs for the third wicket for Karnataka.