Chhattisgarh bowlers performed excellently.
– Photo: Amar Ujala
Expansion
Perfection comes from practice, but the Bihar team does not get it. The team is formed at the last moment and then the team from Bihar arrives to remove it from the field. Due to such exploits, the popular team is psychologically shown the path to defeat. This is visible on the field also. For the first time in a century, when a Ranji Trophy match was played in Bihar, Mumbai defeated the host team by an innings. Now when Chhattisgarh team came to play the second match, after winning the toss Bihar was called to bat. The weather was clear so the match started on time. Then the wickets kept going with a bang. The partnership lasted only once, and the rest of the times it was a come-and-go situation. Till lunch, 97 runs were scored and seven batsmen of Bihar have returned to the pavilion. Only Vipin Saurabh scored 49 and Saqibul Ghani scored 30 runs. The rest could make it from zero to five. Now captain Ashutosh Aman will play after lunch after scoring five runs and Veer Pratap Singh will score six runs.
11 out of 32 overs were maidens, one dealt four
How much Chhattisgarh’s bowlers overpowered Bihar’s batsmen can be understood from the fact that 32 overs were played till lunch and 11 overs were lost. Only one bowler Ravi Kiran dropped four wickets. JP Butte took two wickets, while Vasudev Bareth took one wicket. The excitement that was there about Under 14 player Vaibhav Suryavanshi, appeared to be in vain in the second match and his third innings overall. This time he returned without opening the account. Apart from Suryavanshi, the names of Babul Kumar and Akash Raj were also among the Bihar batsmen who returned without opening the account. Sarman Nigrodh scored five runs, while Sachin Kumar Singh returned with one run.
If wickets fell, wickets kept falling in every over.
In this first innings of the Ranji Trophy match for Bihar, only a partnership of 78 runs was seen between Bipin Saurabh and Saqibul Ghani. Earlier, Vaibhav Suryavanshi had returned to the pavilion in the fifth over, Sarman Nigrodh in the sixth over, Babul Kumar in the seventh over and Akash Raj in the eighth over. Bipin Saurabh and Saqibul Ghani held the ground from the ninth to the 25th over and at one time it seemed that the Bihar team would now reach a respectable position. But, then Bipin Saurabh returned to the pavilion in the 26th over, Sachin Kumar Singh in the 27th over and Saqibul Ghani returned to the pavilion in the 28th over. The fall of wickets stopped again after four overs and lunch took place after Veer Pratap Singh’s 11-run partnership with Ashutosh Aman.