Majumdar ton hands Bengal advantage

Bengaluru: At the end of it all, it was difficult to conclude whether Mayank Agarwal's decision to bowl first was the right one. Sure there was reasonably thick grass covering on the pitch and the new ball did jag off the surface, with V Koushik drawing the first blood with only the third delivery of the innings. But the Karnataka skipper may not have left the field a happy man when the opening day's play was prematurely called off due to bad light.

Despite losing two wickets in the final session of the day and two in the early part of the opening hour, Bengal were placed relatively better at 249/5 in their Group C clash here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. Karnataka's poor over-rate saw only 78 overs bowled for the day. 

Having reduced the visitors to 21/2 with Koushik exploiting the conditions expertly, Karnataka had a measure of control over the proceedings. Things, however, slipped away from their grasp gradually as a patient Sudip Chatterjee (55, 120b, 5x4) and a confident Anustup Majumdar (101, 164b, 16x4) combined to weather the early mini-storm and put Bengal firmly on the saddle.

While Koushik continued to be a difficult customer to handle with his impeccable line and hard lengths, the senior pro didn't receive the desirable support from the inexperienced pace duo of Vidyadhar Patil, who is playing his sixth first-class match spread over two and a quarter seasons, and Abhilash Shetty, who was handed his debut in this match. 

The tiring legs and shoulders gave away to loose balls every now and then and the Bengal batters had settled well enough to feast on them. Majumdar, the 40-year-old skipper, looked hardly in trouble during his 232-minute stay. The right-hander was particularly severe whenever he was offered slight room on the off-side to chance his arm. That he gathered 61% of his runs on the off indicated that the bowlers weren't disciplined enough to cramp him on a wicket where the spinners struggled to extract turn while the pacers became ineffective once the early assistance was over.

It again needed the indefatigable Koushik to break the 100-run alliance for the third wicket when he forced an edge off Chatterjee, having the ball to move just enough to take the outside edge. It was a delivery Chatterjee couldn't have left alone. This is where his junior pace mates erred. While they did get the ball to do a bit, they weren't accurate enough to make the batters play at them.

Shreyas then struck in the post-tea session having Majumdar lbw, a decision he wasn't happy with. Nevertheless, his 19th first-class ton and his fourth-wicket stand of 80 off 153 balls with Shahbaz Ahmed (54 n.o.) had taken the tourists past 200.     

The Bengal batters decided to cut loose towards the closing minutes, and Shetty had his maiden first-class wicket when Avlin Ghosh nicked one behind to Sujay Sateri in an attempt to accelerate. The wicketkeeper couldn't hold on to the ball but Agarwal was alert enough to grab the ricocheted sphere at first slip. Soon after, umpires called lights with Shahbaz standing firm in the company of Wriddhiman Saha (6).