Bengal take control against Rajasthan

Kolkata, Jan 10 (UNI) Ranadeb Bose and Sourav Sarkar were at their lethal best destroying Rajasthan for a paltry 193 and helped Bengal take a giant step towards a first innings lead and looked at an outright victory in the Ranji tie here today.

Bengal captain Deep Dasgupta won the toss and elected to field on a pitch that had a hint of a grass and his decision was vindicated as rookie bowler Sourav Sarkar struck early.

By the sixth over, Rajasthan were reduced to 17 for two with openers R G Sharma and S Vijay back in the dressing room. R J Kanwat and N S Doru offered some resistance taking the score to 75. But once Kanwat was out for 62, a late burst of 41 off 73 balls helped Rajasthan attain some respectability.

Bose, who bowled on a trot on his second spell, was deadly taking six wickets to run through the Rajasthan batting lineup. Bose's figures read six for 34 with an economy rate of 1.85. Sarkar took the remaining four for 78 runs to mark the end of the Rajasthan resistance.

Bengal began with a hiccup losing Arindam Das for naught. But after that S Das and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala made sure that the day ended with Bengal on the upsurge.

S Das was not out on 39 while Jhunjhunwala not out on 40, looked set for big runs tomorrow.

Brief Scores: Rajasthan first innings: 193 R J Kanwat 62 A Jadeja 41 R. Bose 6/34 S Sarkar 4/78 Bengal first innings: 80 for one A Jhunjhunwala 40 not out SG Das 39 not out Ghelot 1/41 UNI