Saurashtra players Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya grabbed two wickets each to leave Bengal struggling at 169/4 in the second innings of Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy Final on Saturday. Team Saurashtra looks in a comfortable position to lift their second title, looking at the current score.
The final clash is being hosted by Bengal as they secured more points than their fellow finalist in the group stage. The previous time these two teams faced each other in a Ranji final was back in the 2019-2020 edition. Saurashtra had won the tournament and finished as champions, while Bengal had finished second best.
While Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary remained unbeaten on 57, the hosts are still 61 runs short of Saurashtra's first-innings score of 404 and Unadkat's side could even wrap up the game on Sunday. Bengal's pace-heavy attack was struggling in the morning as Saurashtra added 87 more runs to take their score past 400.
Arpit Vasavada (81) and Chirag Jani (60) got dismissed quickly. However, Prerak Mankad (33) and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (29) gave Saurashtra the winning edge.
When it comes to Bengal's second innings, they had a difficult start with the duo of Sakariya (2/50) and Unadkat (2/47) shattering the top order to reduce them to 47/3. Still trailing by 183 runs, an innings defeat loomed large when the veteran duo of Anustup Majumdar (61) and Tiwary came together and gave the 1,000-odd fans some hope with their 99-run partnership.
Bengal, who are yet to win their maiden Ranji Trophy title in 32 years will hope for a turnaround as the game looks inclined towards Saurashtra, who had won their maiden Ranji Trophy title by beating Bengal three years ago at Rajkot.
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