Young right-hander Writtick Chatterjee struck an unbeaten double hundred as Bengal virtually killed the Ranji Trophy quarter-final contest against defending champions Gujarat with a day's play left.
After Abhimanyu Easwaran (114, 345 balls) had done the primary job of deflating the Gujarat bowlers on the third day, relatively unknown Chatterjee took the centre stage scoring a career-best 213 with Bengal making Gujarat bite the dust with a total of 483 for 4.
Easwaran duly completed his second century of the match- seventh in his 30-match first-class career before Chatterjee took centre stage. Easwaran's knock had 13 boundaries and two sixes.
With an overall lead of 613, the final day's play is as inconsequential as it can be unless Manoj Tiwary wants to press for an outright win against Parthiv Patel's men.
If he intends to frustrate the last year's champions further, then he might well give Chatterjee a chance to have a shot at triple hundred.
While Easwaran is sure to be adjudged 'Player of the Match' for his twin hundreds opening the innings, Chatterjee's emergence as a dependable middle-order batsman has been a big plus.
He scored an unbeaten 102 -- his maiden first-class hundred in the final group league game against Goa. That was also a second innings hundred like the one in Jaipur.
So far Chatterjee has faced 357 balls and has hit 23 boundaries and a six.
He has been a prolific club-level performer for Bhowanipore for a while but this is the first season, where he is showing signs of graduating to the first-class level as a batsman.
Before the last two matches, his claim to fame was getting Tamil Nadu's final wicket in a low-scoring thriller at the Chepauk, during the 2013-14 season.
It was an inspired gamble by the then skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla on a rank turner that had paid off.
After Easwaran was caught and bowled by Iswar Chaudhary having shared a 121-run stand, Chatterjee added another 166 runs with skipper Tiwary (59, 177 balls) for the third wicket.
He added 88 runs for the fourth wicket with Shreevats Goswami (32).
Brief Scores: 354 and 483/4 (Writtick Chatterjee 213 batting, Abhimanyu Easwaran 114, Manoj Tiwary 59).
Gujarat 1st Innings 224. Bengal are 613 runs ahead.
Delhi on course for fine win in Ranji quarterfinal
Bowlers put Delhi on course for a memorable win by bowling out Madhya Pradesh for 283 in their second innings, giving their team a 217-run target to chase on day five of the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal.
Pacer Vikas Tokas (3/64) and left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra (4/59) did the bulk of the damage on day four to put their team in a strong position.
Delhi were eight for no loss at stumps with Kunal Chandela and Tokas in the middle.
MP, resuming the day 37 for two, were on the backfoot straightaway on day four with the fall of Shubham Sharma and Naman Ojha.
Puneet Datey (60) and Devendra Bundela (33) then shared a 100-run stand, providing their team with some much-needed momentum before getting out in a space of four balls to make it 153 for six.
First innings centurion Harpreet Singh came to MP's rescue once again with a fighting 78 off 126 balls. He also got good support from Mihir Hirwani (22) and Ankit Sharma (18) in taking his team past the 250-run mark.
Brief scores:
MP: 338 all out and 283 all out in 105.5 overs (Harpreet 78; Mishra 4/59).
Delhi: 405 all out and 8/0 in 3 overs.
