KOLKATA: It was all over in the extended first session's play on Day Four as Bengal made their third straight Ranji Trophy semifinal by recording a convincing nine-wicket win against Jharkhand in the quarterfinal at the Eden Gardens here on Friday.
Resuming at 162/7, Jharkhand continued their reckless batting to be bowled out for 221 runs, surviving just 15.3 overs in the morning.
Bengal completed the formalities of chasing down the 67-run victory target, losing opener Kazu Junaid Saifi to make the semifinals against defending champions Madhya Pradesh, who overcame Andhra, from Feb 8.
Incidentally, last year too Bengal defeated Jharkhand to set up a last-four clash with MadhyaPradesh. Pacers Mukesh Kumar and Akash Ghatak picked up one wicket each while Rahul Shukla was run out rather unnecessarily after an useful 56-run ninth-wicket stand with Supryo Chakraborty as Jharkhand's challenge fizzled out without a fight. Chakraborty could only delay the inevitable by staying undefeated on 41.
However, Bengal's opening woes continued as they lost youngster Saifi for four in the fourth over of their second essay before Abhimanyu Easwaran (28 not out), who hit the winning run with a boundary, and Sudip Gharami (26 not out), who survived a caught and bowled chance by Shahbaz Nadeem at 18, finished things off in 12.4 overs.
The Bengal pacers once again came out with flying colours, claiming 16 of the 20 wickets to fall. Akash Deep was named man of the match.
Brief scores: Bengal 328 and 69/1 (Abhimanyu 28*, Gharami 26*, Shukla 1-24) beat Jharkhand 173 and 221 (Sen 64, Chakraborty 41*, Roy 40, Ghatak 3-21, Shahbaz 2-45, Akash Deep 2-46) by 9 wickets
