With help from Anustup Majumdar (69 not out; 8x4; 122b), Abhimanyu Easwaran (183 not out; 4x23; 2x6; 211b) steered Bengal to a seven-wicket win against Delhi making their highest run chase in the Ranji Trophy look easy in this Elite Group B tie at Eden Gardens.

After three days of medium-pacers bettering batsmen, after three days of repeatedly letting Delhi back into the game, after three days of the scoring rate not crossing four, Easwaran and Majumdar’s attacking 186-run stand took Bengal to 22 points and, going into the final game against Punjab beginning here on Monday, kept alive chances of a quarter-final berth.

On Tuesday, Ashoke Dinda had said Bengal would win with 15 overs to spare. They did with a little less than 20.

“This is the kind of victory we wanted. This will change things, change the morale, the momentum; the ball is now running for Bengal. Watch out for Bengal,” said mentor Arun Lal after his team overhauled the target of 322 and celebrated with a kickabout.

The winning runs came from Easwaran, 23, and it was appropriate that the final four would come from a backfoot cover-drive for it was a shot he played well through the day. Patchy till his first 50 with half-chances blotting a string of drives --- a straight drive off Kulwant Khejroliya in the second over showed his intent and two cover-drives, one each off Subodh Bhati and Akash Sudan, his class --- Easwaran grew in confidence and that seemed to rub off on Majumdar too.

“Guess it will be among my top three knocks. I was getting out in the 60s and the 70s and first Rahul Dravid Sir (under whom Easwaran played for India A) and then my coach (Apurva Desai) told me to focus on one over at a time. Inputs from Sourav Sir (Sourav Ganguly, the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal), Bengal coaching staff and seniors too helped,” said Easwaran.

Rooted to a chair next to Lal for nearly four hours, Ganguly had told Easwaran to focus on staying till tea, the batsman said. Over the past three days, Ganguly would usually be seen deep in the second session. On Wednesday, he entered before the first had ended and when Bengal’s troubles it seemed had begun.

Abhishek Raman had ended a 121-run opening stand with Easwaran with a poor shot to Nitish Rana that found Akash Sudan near the cover boundary. The ‘Raman effect’ led to Khejroliya getting his length right and dismissing Sudip Chatterjee and Manoj Tiwary. From 121 for no loss, Bengal, with lunch around the corner, had slumped to 137/3.

“Our first target was to stay till lunch. Because the other bowlers weren’t pitching it in the right areas, we concentrated on surviving Khejroliya’s spell. If we qualify this will be my best innings,” said Majumdar who has a first-class best of 144.

Their bowling ineffective barring Khejroliya’s second spell, Delhi’s chances seemed blown after Khejroliya hurt his ankle while fielding and couldn’t bowl after the 42nd over. “Injuries happen but you can’t win matches by bowling on both sides of the wicket,” said Delhi coach Mithun Manhas.

Between 10:33am and 10:55am on Wednesday, it seemed Bengal’s hopes had ended. Time will tell if straddling generations, Easwaran and Majumdar have resurrected Bengal’s season.

First Published: Jan 02, 2019 19:21 IST