Bengal fail to capitalise on advantage

Kolkata, Dec 18 (UNI) Bengal failed to capitalise on the advantage of day-one by frittering away wickets after good start to finish day at 227 for five in reply to Gujarat's 329 in their Ranji tie at the Eden Gardens here today.

Commencing at 276 for seven, Gujarat reached 329, thanks to a brilliant century from Parthiv Patel and some down the order came by A Singh who remained undefeated for 27 with five hits to the fence.

Earlier Patel completed his century and was eventually out for 103 of 179 balls with ten hits to the fence.

While Bose and Shukla polished off the tail, Singh made sure that Gujarat crossed the 300 mark.

In reply Bengal began in an odd manner losing wickets at regular intervals before a 79 run partnership between Rohan Gavaskar and L R Shukla stemmed the rot. At stumps Gavaskar was not out for 45 with six hits to the fence and Shukla on 50 with same number of boundaries.

Earlier Arindam Das (37) and A Jhunjhunwala (24) the players on form failed to capitalise on their start. While for Gujarat, Majumdar was the pick of the lot with two wickets, Bose was the best bowler for Bengal with four wickets for his efforts.

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