da brwin： Bengal’s Ranji Trophy aspirations for the 1999-2000 season ended onThursday as they lost to Mumbai by 242 runs
Sakyasen Mittra16-Mar-2000Bengal’s Ranji Trophy aspirations for the 1999-2000 season ended onThursday as they lost to Mumbai by 242 runs. Chasing a victory targetof 381 runs, Bengal were bundled out for 138 runs.The hosts, who were 67 for the loss of four wickets overnight, losttheir remaining six batsmen in 107 minutes of play today. RomeshPowar and Rajesh Pawar picked up five wickets apiece to establishMumbai’s superiority. They finished with 32 points winning all theirfour matches. On the other hand, Bengal finished their leagueengagements with 13 points. The match was especially memorable forRamesh Powar who followed his second innings score of 92 with hisfirst five-wicket haul in the Ranji Trophy.Much was expected of the overnight pair of Saba Karim and RohanGavaskar. However, the junior Gavaskar, playing his first matchagainst Mumbai, disappointed in the second innings also. He playedforward to the off-spinner Powar and was caught pad-bat at silly pointby skipper Amol Muzumdar. Powar was also responsible for getting SabaKarim. The batsman who had hit him for two sixes over mid wicket triedto cut a delivery against the turn only to edge it on to hisstumps. This was the last of the resistance.If Powar had decimated the top half of Bengal it was the turn of theleft arm spinner Rajesh Pawar to destroy the lower order. He took fourwickets today and his victims were Utpal Chatterjee, Vishal Yadav,Nikhil Haldipur and Sourashis Lahiri. Pawar bowled flat today anddeceived the batsmen by varying the length of his deliveries. He hadHaldipur leg before with one that kept low and then bowled Yadav witha quicker delivery which surprised the batsman. Pawar had theoutstanding figures of 9.1-3-32-4 today and his innings analysis read19.1-5-60-5. Powar finished with five wickets for 46 runs of 23 overs,nine of which were maidens.Bengal skipper Utpal Chatterjee blamed his batsmen for the poorshow. “We had Mumbai on the mat on the first day by dismissing themfor 182. However, our batsmen did not have the grit and determinationto fight it out. In the second innings the job became increasinglydificult. However, even then I feel that it was possible to survivefor two days on this wicket.” On the other hand, Muzumdar was allpraise for his bowlers.