New Delhi: Bengal batters Sudip Gharami, Anustup Majumdar and seven others' names have now been etched in the annals of world cricketing history. During their Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Jharkhand, the Bengal batters made the full use of belter dished out to them, and went on to erase the previous world record set in the Australian first-class cricket way back in 1893.
It's 129 summers ago, the Oxford and Cambridge past and present team locked horns with Australia in a first-class fixture in which the latter clobbered through the field to score 833. In 833, as many as eight batters scored 50-plus to create a record that stayed intact till Wednesday morning. But not anymore. Now, nine Bengal batters have scored 50-plus runs to glide them to a mammoth 773 for 7 soon after lunch on Day Three on Wednesday. The herculean effort included tons from Gharami (186) and Majumdar (117).
The Bengal scorecard was a bowler's nightmare. Abhishek Raman (61), Abhimanyu Easwaran (65), Sudip Gharami (186), A Majumdar (117), Manoj Tiwary (73), Abhishek Porel (68), Shahbaz Ahmed (78), Sayan Mondal (53*) and Akash Deep (53*) all scored fifty-plus scores. The show with the willow seems to have excited the past greats of Bengal cricket. Sambaran Banerjee, Arun Lal and Ashok Malhotra were instrumental in Bengal winning their last Ranji Trophy title back in 1989-90. Banerjee was the skipper with Lal and Malhotra contributing handsomely to bring the coveted trophy home.
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Arun Lal, Bengal head coach, showered accolades on his wards. "See we were not playing for the record, it just happened. In the end, Akash Deep hit eight sixes to score the ninth fifty for them. We declared, but we should have gone ahead and he might have scored a hundred. They are an exceptional bunch of boys and am very proud of them," Lal told ETV Bharat from Bangalore.
The former Bengal captain is also harbouring hopes of winning the Ranji Trophy after coming tantalizingly close to winning the title last year. "I believe they can make it this time as this is undoubtedly the best team in the competition," added the coach. The 1989-90 winning team captain Sambaran Banerjee was given the news of this indomitable feat by ETV Bharat.
"Oh is it a world record? It's a great achievement and a rare one. I hope they carry on this form in the next matches to bring home the trophy," an elated Banerjee said. Last but not the least, another stalwart Ashok Malhotra too was exhilarated with the effort. "I think they have a good chance of winning the title this time, particularly because of their batting. Bengal always had a strong bowling line-up but batting was the cause of concern," Malhotra said.
On Bengal's next assignment, Malhotra was hopeful as Bengal are likely to up against a beleaguered Madhya Pradesh. "Madhya Pradesh will be without the service of their regular bowler Avesh Khan. So it's a good chance this time," Malhotra signed off.
