Ranji Trophy: The first semi-final match of Ranji Trophy 2022-23 was played between Madhya Pradesh and Bengal at Holkar Stadium in Indore. In this match, Bengal won by 306 runs and confirmed its place in the final. The Madhya Pradesh team had got a mammoth target of 548 runs in the fourth innings of the match, but the team collapsed by scoring only 241 runs.
In the fourth innings of the match for Bengal, left-arm spin bowler Pradipta Pramanik gave away 51 runs in his bowling of just 10.5 overs, collecting half of the Madhya Pradesh team. Apart from him, Mukesh Kumar took 2 wickets while Shahbaz Ahmed and Akash Deep took 1-1 wickets.
In the second innings of the team from Madhya Pradesh, Rajat Patidar scored an inning of 52 runs, but due to lack of support from any batsman from the other end, he could not succeed in taking the team towards the target. In the match for Bengal, Akash Deep bowled brilliantly and won the title of Player of the Match. Akash Deep opened the claw in the first innings.
Bengal took hold in the first innings
In this match, Bengal team captain Manoj Tiwari decided to bat first after winning the toss. After both the opening batsmen of the team returned to the pavilion on a score of 51 runs, a partnership of more than 200 runs was seen for the third wicket between Anustup Majumdar and Sudeep Gharmi. Where Anustup played an inning of 120 runs, Sudeep got 112 runs from his bat.
On the basis of the brilliant performance of both these batsmen, the Bengal team managed to reach a score of 438 in their first innings. After this, the Madhya Pradesh batsmen showed a very poor performance and their team was reduced to just 170, in which Akash Deep took 5 wickets from Bengal.
In the second innings of the Bengal team, Anustup’s brilliant innings of 80 runs were seen with the bat, apart from this, Pradipta also scored an unbeaten 60, which helped the team reach the score of 279 and set Madhya Pradesh a target of 548. The title match of this season of Ranji Trophy will be played on 16 February.
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