Ranji Trophy: Khadiwale ton puts Maharashtra back in the game

Fri, Nov 6 05:38 AM

Maharashtra batted first and were bowled out for a meagre 179 runs. In reply, Bengal posted a decent total of 325 runs, which gave them a lead of 146 runs. Maharashtra started Day 2 with a score of 46/0 and pushed their score to 99 runs before they lost their first wicket.

Bhonsale was caught behind off the bowling of Lahiri for a total of 33 runs. Bengal then had a good spell where they picked up four quick wichets. Shrikhande, Jadhav, Atitkar and Khadiwale fell in quick succession and Maharashtra were in trouble at 190/5. R Motwani and Ganesh Gaikwad then put up a partnership of 90 runs to rescue their team from certain defeat.

Motwani displayed a lot of grit in his innings of 59* while his partner Gaikwad gave him excellent support with 43 valuable runs. Ranadeb Bose and S Lahiri did all the damage for the Bengal team. Lahiri took four wickets while Bose took the remaining three. The score at the end of the day was 305/7.

Coach Shaun Williams was happy with the performance of his team. He felt that the fight the team put up gave them a chance to win this match.

"I am happy with the performances of Harshad Khadiwale and Motwani. Ganesh Gaikwad also applied himself well. However, we will need to put up at least fifty more runs in order to have a real chance of winning this game," he said, adding that they cannot afford to be sloppy in the field on the final day.

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