For all the hubbub around white-ball cricket, the stakes of a red-ball game remain unmatched for the result doesn’t define the toil of one day or 40 overs but four days of sweat. Frustration only becomes natural thus when teammates fail to cooperate, as was evident in the Bengal-Punjab Ranji clash.
Bengal accrued a massive first-innings lead of 152 runs, having bowled out Punjab for 190 on Day 1, in their final Ranji Trophy 2024/25 group stage encounter at the Eden Gardens on Friday. The hosts were themselves reeling at 145/5 at one stage but a quickfire half-century from Abhishek Porel and a maiden career ton for nightwatchman Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal propelled the side to 343 much to their rivals’ frustration. However, the knock was not without upheavels or frustrations of its own either, all of which reached a head in the 73rd over of the innings during the second session on Day 2.
Batting on 61 and bearing the responsibility of scoring as many as possible while shepherding the tail, Suraj decided to go after legspinner Mayank Markande and attempted to heave a length delivery straying down leg over midwicket. The 25-year-old managed no more than a top-edge as the red cherry went soaring with short-midwicket settling under it. The resignation was immediately evident in Suraj’s behaviour as he trot down the track while the eyes remained fixated on the ball as was the case for his tailender partner Vishal Bhati. However, with both halfway down the track, Bhati realized there was potential for the sitter to be dropped and began retracing his steps but by the time Suraj came to the same conclusion, he had already covered three-fourths of the pitch. A desperate scream made Bhati cognizant of the same as he turned around again and found a panic-stricker Suraj stranded alongside him. In a comedy of errors, Bhati thus began to run towards the striker’s end again but stopped after a brief shuffle to gauge whether Suraj was on the same page, only for the the hesitation to create even more confusion. Eventually, the duo in unison began sprinting towards the wicket-keeper and by the time Bhati took his final roundabout turn, Markande had already dislodged the bails.
Bhati was understandably livid as he hollered at a hunched and disappointed Suraj for the schoolboy-like mix-up but much to everyone’s amusement, the duo was not the only one fighting. At the same time, Markande was spitting some harsh words at his teammate for letting go of an absolute dolly and depriving him of a deserved scalp, that too of the set batter. Twitterati, unsurprisingly, had a field day with the incident.
WOW!
Emotional
A special and emotional farewell 🫂
Guard of honour and felicitation for Bengal wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha who is playing his final First-class match 👏👏#RanjiTrophy | @IDFCFIRSTBank | @Wriddhipops
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/GAuG6Mqk8H pic.twitter.com/DGCJRh4QWT— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) January 31, 2025
Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha playing his last match of the career in Eden Gardens. Wriddhiman to retire from all forms of cricket after Bengal Vs Punjab, Ranji Trophy match.@Wriddhipops pic.twitter.com/WbsImDLSzt
— Anirban Sinha Roy | অনির্বাণ | अनिर्बान | (@AnirbanSinhr) January 30, 2025
Great day
Interesting
📍Mayank Markande in Ranji Trophy Against Bengal
8.4-44-1
Econ: 5.07 pic.twitter.com/nXNYNDdvks— Rokte Amar KKR (@Rokte_Amarr_KKR) January 31, 2025
Tanmay Agarwal scored another century in the Ranji Trophy and is currently the leading run scorer in 2024/25 season with 928 runs at an average of 84.36.
Unfortunately, Hyderabad won’t make it to the knockout stage, but it has still been a memorable season for him. https://t.co/5JswNbFnPG— Vijay Anaparthi (@VijayCricketFan) January 31, 2025
Feel good
Don’t underestimate Ranji Player, they feel good performing in front of Star cricketers & star players hesitate to face them in public.
— Rajiv Kumar Gaur (@RajivKumarGaur2) January 31, 2025
International level
Ranji bowler dha da international bowler Avan https://t.co/L2vqfQqmMv
— prasanna (@PrasannZone) January 31, 2025
Shardul Thakur picked Hat-trick with the ball.
Shardul Thakur scored a fifty with the bat.
– A COMPLETE SHOW IN RANJI BY SHARDUL. pic.twitter.com/ixaxbMNtDZ— CRICKET (@Islamic95024167) January 31, 2025
Reality
Kohli 6 !
Ranji is bringing out the truth.— Ruchira Banerji (@BanerjiR) January 31, 2025
