Kalyani stars in Bengal's comfortable win

The Wills Trophy quarterfinal clash between Bengal and Punjab at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Tuesday was expected to be a close game. But it turned out to be lop sided with Bengal running out comfortable winners by five wickets with 4.4 overs to spare.

Opting to bat first, Punjab were a major disappointment. Openers Vikram Rathour and Sandeep Sharma were dismissed by the time the score was 29 in the seventh over. Then commenced the only notable stand of the innings - 58 runs for the third wicket off 13.4 overs between Pankaj Dharmani (33) and A Kakkar (41). Following this, only D Mongia (22) and Amit Sharma (39) made valuable contributions. The last five wickets fell for 35 runs in 9.5 overs and the Punjab total was an inadequate 196 in 49.4 overs. Opening bowler S Panda was the most successful bowler with three for 36.

Medium pacer Sandeep Sharma gave Punjab some hopes by dismissing both openers Nikhil Haldipur and LR Shukla in successive overs by the time the score was 33. The left handed Rohan Gavaskar also did not last long and Bengal were 60 for three in 16 overs. However veteran Srikant Kalyani and experienced wicketkeeper Saba Karim put Bengal on the road to recovery with a fourth wicket partnership of 64 runs off 15.4 overs. Karim was then out for 32. He faced 56 balls and hit three fours and a six. Charanjeet Singh was out quickly but Kalyani played some thrilling strokes and he and skipper Utpal Chatterjee, who hit out boldly steered Bengal to a convincing victory. Chatterjee's unbeaten 29 was compiled off 34 balls with three fours and a six. But the star was clearly Kalyani who remained unconquered on 81. He faced 99 balls and hit 12 fours. Sandeep Sharma was the pick of the bowlers finishing with three for 34 off nine overs.