Kolkata: Rishi Dhawan’s all-round performance earned Himachal Pradesh an important draw in their Group D clash against Bengal at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
After an improved batting display in the second innings from Priyanshu Khandari (95), Prashant Chopra (81) and Nikhil Gangta (57), Himachal Pradesh were rescued by a late 38-run partnership between Rishi Dhawan and Siddharth Sharma. The dogged resistance by the duo only delayed a probable victory for Bengal as in the end, they successfully walked away with a point and also stopped the Manoj Tiwary led side from grabbing full six points.
Dhawan especially was the star for the visitors on Saturday as he smashed an unbeaten 51 of 90 deliveries with seven fours and more importantly, stayed rooted on the crease and didn’t throw away his wicket. Sharma, who could score just one run from 38 balls also played carefully and partnered Dhawan in that little partnership which had a say in the outcome of the match. Finally Ashok Dinda (3/74) broke the stand and Mohammad Shami (5/109) cleaned out the tail to restrict the visitors to 353, thereby setting a 141 run target to win the match.
The Bengal batsmen came out looking for an important win as Wriddhiman Saha opened the innings alongside centurion from the first innings Abhishek Raman. But Raman, unfortunately fell in the very first ball of the innings which triggered a ‘mini-collapse’ that also saw the left-handed Sudip Chatterjee (6), skipper Manoj Tiwary (2) and Sreevats Goswami (11) depart in quick time.
But Indian test wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha (34 n.o) stood firm at the other end as he along with Abhimanyu Easwaran (10 n.o) ensured that there wasn’t any more damage done after which the match ended in a draw.
Abhishek Raman was named the Man-of-the-match for his classy 176 in the first innings.
Brief scores-
Kolkata: Bengal 419 and 65/4 (Wriddhiman Saha 34 n.o, Shreevats Goswami 11; Rishi Dhawan 4/37) drew with Himachal Pradesh 206 and 353 (Priyanshu Khandari 95, Prashant Chopra 81; Mohammad Shami 5/109)
Other matches-
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 219 and 191 beat Jammu and Kashmir 173 and 79 (Parvez Rasool 17, Aamir Aziz 12; KC Akshay 5/21) by 161 runs.
Pune: Maharashtra 245 and 247 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 65, Rahul Tripathi 51; Abhimanyu Mithun 5/57) lost to Karnataka 628/5 by an innings and 136 runs.
Valsad: Gujarat 236 and 281/9 decl beat Haryana 157 and 122 (Sanjay Pahal 41, Harshal Patel 19; Piyush Chawla 5/44) by 238 runs.
Raipur: Chattisgarh 238 and 297 (Ashutosh Singh 119, Vishal Singh 45; Sandeep Sharma 4/89) lost to Punjab 653/9 by an innings and 118 runs.
Delhi: Delhi 269 and 256/6 (Nitish Rana 67, Unmukt Chand 49; Ankit Rajpoot 3/61) beat Uttar Pradesh 291 and 229 by 4 wickets.
Vizianagaram: Andhra Pradesh 376 and 65/2 (Hanuma Vihari 28, Prashanth Kumar 23; Puneet Datey 1/21) beat Madhya Pradesh 321 and 119 by 8 wickets.
Vadodara: Baroda 521 and 85/6 (Vishnu Solanki 24, Aditya Waghmode 19; Abhijit Sarkar 5/18) drew against Tripura 436.
Nagpur: Services 317 and 99 (G Rahul Singh 33, Vikas Yadav 30; Akshay Wakhare 5/16) lost to Vidarbha 385 and 223/6 decl. by 192 runs.
Rajkot: Saurashtra 553/9 and 59/4 (Robin Uthappa 17, Chirag Jani 16; Ashish Kumar 2/20) beat Jharkhand 270 and 341 by 6 wickets.
Delhi: Hyderabad 474/9 decl. and 23/0 (Tanmay Agarwal 15 n.o, Akshath Reddy 7; Ashish Yadav 0/2) beat Railways 246 and 250 by 10 wickets.
Mumbai: 289 and 268/9 beat Odisha 145 and 292 (Govinda Poddar 87, Santanu Mishra 49; Akash Parkar 3/40) by 120 runs.