Agartala: After successful outings in the first two matches, senior pacer Mohammed Shami went wicket-less as centurion Hanuma Vihari helped Tripura punch above their weight and inch closer to Bengal’s first innings total in their Group C Ranji Trophy match here on Monday.
At stumps on the third day, Tripura were 273 for seven with outstation star Vihari unbeaten on 121 and skipper Manisankar Murasingh batting on 42, the two having added 73 runs for the eighth wicket.
Former champions Bengal were bowled out for 336 in their first innings, leaving Tripura to trail the fancied visitors by 63 runs heading into the final day’s play.
Overnight at 336 for nine, Bengal were all out at the start of the day without the addition of any run, with pace spearhead Manisankar Murasingh and Rana Dutta picking up three wickets each for the home team. Bikramkumar Das chipped in with 2/16 from six overs.
Tripura were off to a disastrous start in their first innings as they slipped to 35 for four and then 53 for five, with medium pacer Mohammed Kaif inflicting maximum damage on the home team.
Kaif returned with excellent figures of 4/53 in 19 overs.
However, out-of-favour India all-rounder Vihari came to his team’s rescue with a dogged hundred, which contained 17 fours and a six.
With half of the side back in the dressing room, Vihari began rebuilding the Tripura innings with a couple of hand partnerships. He first added 107 runs for the seventh wicket with Vijay Shankar (34) and then stitched an unbroken stand of 73 with Murasingh.
Meanwhile, Shami, who is seeking to come back into the Indian team and picked up plenty of wickets in the first two matches in this Ranji season, failed to taste success on the day much to the opposition camp’s relief.
Brief scores: In Agartala: Bengal 336 all out in 115.5 overs (Sudip Gharami 108, Habib Gandhi 95; Rana Dutta 3/76, Manisankar Murasingh 3/56) vs Tripura 273/7 in 78 overs (Hanuma Vihari 121 batting, Manisankar Murasingh 42 batting; Mohammed Kaif 4/53) .
In Guwahati: Railways 224 all out in 65 overs (Bhargav Merai 73; Ayushman Malakar 3/42) vs Assam 99/1 in 30 overs (Swarupam Purkayastha batting 70).
In Ahmedabad: Gujarat 163 and 113/8 in 45 overs (Urvil Patel 44; Nikhil Kashyap 3/55) vs Haryana 239 all out in 84.5 overs (Yashvardhan Dalal 55; Siddharth Desai 4/43) In Delhi: Uttarakhand 257 and 88 all out in 38 overs (Arjun Sharma 6/41, Vikas Yadav 4/22) vs Services 223 all out in 88.2 overs (Mohit Ahlawat 75, Ravi Chauhan 51; Mayank Mishra 4/86) and 71/5 in 30 overs (Mayank Mishra 3/33).
