Ganguly fails, Bengal skittled out for 156 by Punjab

Mohali, Nov 23 (UNI) Failing with the bat, former India captain Saurav Ganguly in his quest to stage a comeback, struck two quick blows as Punjab scored 75 for 3 in their first innings against runners-up Bengal in their opening Super League Group B match in Ranji Trophy Championship at the PCA Stadium here today.

This was in reply to Bengal's first innings total of 156 all out in 53.1 overs.

Punjab suffered an early setback as opener Karan Goel was run out at the team's total of six. However opener Ravneet Ricky (batting on 33, 5x4s) and Munish Sharma (31, 4x4s) propped up the Punjab's innings with a second-wicket partnership of 57 runs before Ganguly had Munish adjudged leg before wicket. The second Punjab wicket fell at 63.

The hosts could add only one more run to their total before the 'Prince of Kolkata' got Punjab's consistent run-getter and skipper Pankaj Dharmani for another leg before wicket.

Earlier Punjab won the toss and decided to field first. Half of the Bengal side was out for just 18 runs with medium pacer Gagandeep Singh (4 for 36) doing the maximum damage. His victims were Arndam Das (6), Junjhunwala (5), Ganguly (6) and L K Shukla (30).

Rohan Gavaskar (0) also disappointed the spectators. Lovabilish (2 for 39) had him caught by Gaurav Gupta.

Deep Dasgupta and Shukla then applied themselves and were associated in a valuable 73-run partnership for the sixth wicket.

Gagandeep broke this threatening association as he had Shukla leg before wicket. Shukla batted for 87 minutes, faced 65 balls and slammed four fours.

Deep Dasgupta was the last batsman to be out as Bengal were restricted to 156 in 53.1 overs. Dasgutpa's laboured innings contained 10 fours. His vigil at the wicket lasted 223 minutes and faced 163 deliveries.

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