KOLKATA: Bengal pacers good run was halted by Ravi Teja and Tanay Thyagarajan who were involved in a potential game-changing eighth-wicket partnership of 109 runs that kept the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match between Bengal and Hyderabad evenly poised at the end of Day II at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Friday. Mukesh Kumar, who rocked the Hyderabad innings claiming two wickets on Thursday evening, continued in the same vein adding two more to his tally early on Friday morning dismissing Himalay Agarwal and wicketkeeper-batter Prateek Reddy.
Akash Deep picked up Buddhi Rahul while Ishan Porel dismissed opener Tanmay Agarwal soon after. And when medium pacer Sayan Sekhar Mondol castled Mickil Jaiswal, Hyderabad looked down the barrel being reduced to 70 for seven.
It was at this junction that Teja and Thyagarajan decided to put up a resistance. No doubt the first two days of the match belonged to these Hyderabad boys. The duo got their willows to talk after claiming eight wickets among themselves on Thursday with medium pacer Teja picking up three for 48 and left-arm spinner Thyagarajan claiming five for 71 in the Bengal first innings.
In spite of being a bit tentative early in their innings playing and missing some deliveries, both started playing with the middle of their bats in the post-lunch session. The two actually could see through the entire second session without being separated.
Bengal skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran kept rotating his bowlers but with little gains. Finally it was veteran Manoj Tiwary who provided the much-needed breakthrough getting Thyagarajan caught behind by Abhishek Porel for a well-made 52 runs. The 27-year-old playing his 10th first-class match defied the Bengal attack for 103 balls, hitting seven boundaries. The Hyderabad innings folded up quickly for 204 runs with Teja remaining undefeated for 81 facing 196 deliveries and hitting six fours and two sixes.
Bengal suffered an early jolt losing opener Sudip Gharami in the third ball of their second innings, but Easwaran and Ritwik Roy Chowdhury saw through to stumps as Bengal finished at 16 for one. Enjoying a 53-run overall lead, the Bengal batters need to put up a good total for Hyderabad to chase in the fourth innings.
