Bengal’s Sudip Chatterjee shows his class

24-year old Sudip Chatterjee who has had a great run in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 throughout the league stage, scoring 712 runs from 14 innings with four centuries, has carried his good form into the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015.

Having scored 22 runs in the first encounter against Goa and 33 runs in the second one against Himachal Pradesh, the young southpaw came into his elements in the ongoing game against Uttar Pradesh.

Winning the toss and opting to bat, Bengal were in a precarious situation losing 4 wickets for just 55 runs on the board in 16.2 overs. Then followed a fifth-wicket partnership of 69 runs in 15 overs between Sudip Chatterjee and the veteran Laxmi Ratan Shukla (32, 51b, 3 fours, 1 six) that brought some respectability to the score.

A 45-run sixth-wicket partnership between Chatterjee and Pankaj Kumar Shaw (26) took the team to the level of 169/6 in 38.4 overs. Chatterjee from one end kept the scoreboard moving while wickets tumbled at the other.

A rearguard action by Mohammad Shami (20), who is back in action after a long lay-off due to injury, enabled Bengal to end their innings at 221 runs in 48.3 overs.

Waging a lone battle, Sudip ended up scoring 97 runs with the help of 9 fours, facing 114 deliveries. Playing in his 21st (19th innings) List A game, Sudip narrowly missed what would have been his maiden century.

It is really encouraging to see that this young batsman responding to such situations when quite a few senior players failed to deliver. UP, chasing a target of 222 runs in 50 overs, were 46 for no loss in 10.5 overs while filing this report.