Watch: Saurashtra left-arm seamers Jaydev Unadkat and Chetan Sakariya struck twice in three balls to reduce Bengal to 2-3 in the 2022/23 Ranji Trophy final.
After he won the toss and put Bengal in, Unadkat was the first to strike at the Eden Gardens, with a sharp inswinger off the fifth ball of the match. The ball curled into Abhimanyu Easwaran and lobbed to Jay Gohil at forward short-leg off Easwaran’s bat and pad.
Watch Jaydev Unadkat dismiss Abhimanyu Easwaran here:
Unadkat’s over ended with Bengal on 1-1. At the other end was first-class debutant Sumanta Gupta, who had got off the mark off Unadkat. Now Sakariya bowled on off-stump, on a length, and moved it slightly away from Gupta.
Undecided between stretching forward and playing from the crease, Gupta ended up doing neither, and was undone by his lack of footwork. The ball took the edge and went to Sheldon Jackson at slip.
Anushtup Majumdar then got a leg-bye off the first ball he faced to bring Sudip Gharami on strike. Sakariya’s ball pitched on off-stump. Gharami, under the assumption that it would leave him – a fair call, given how Gupta had been dismissed – left it alone.
The ball crashed on to the off-stump, leaving Bengal reeling at 2-3 after 1.4 overs.
Watch Chetan Sakariya dismiss Sumanta Gupta and Sudip Gharami here:
Bengal soon became 65-6 before Shahbaz Ahmed (69) and wicketkeeper Abishek Porel (50) added 101 for the seventh wicket. However, they lost their last four wickets for eight runs to be bowled out for 174.
Unadkat finished with 3-44 and Sakariya with 3-33, while Chirag Jani (2-33) and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja (2-19) shared the other wickets. At the time of writing, Saurashtra were 38-1. They trail by another 136.
