Bengal's Ranji Trophy Woes and Mumbai's Collapse: Day II Recap

Manoj Tiwary, the skipper, has a lot of complaints about the umpires and the Ranji Trophy in general. However, Bengal's very careless performance against Kerala in their Ranji match in Thiruvananthapuram cannot be disregarded.

At stumps on Day II, Bengal were reeling at 172/8 in response to the home team's 363, which is by no means a scary total. Bengal's job is immense since they are still 191 down and can only expect to advance to the knockout stages with a victory in this game.


Following the play of the day, Tiwary said that "so many things going wrong in the tournament" on social media, venting his frustration with Ranji.

The Ranji Trophy need to be eliminated from the schedule beginning with the next season. There are so many issues with the competition. There are a lot of things that need to be investigated in order to preserve this esteemed competition with a long history. It is becoming less significant and charming. Completely dissatisfied," Tiwary posted on X.

It was discovered that spinner Jalaj Saxena, who has taken seven of the eight wickets for Bengal that have fallen thus far, would often say "No" just before releasing the ball. Tiwary was irritated that the umpires had let Saxena to walk off with the game, and this "induced" him to play a careless shot.

"Jalaj Saxena should have been called up by the umpires. Sometimes, while bowling hard, bowlers create a sound during the delivery stride or just before they release the ball. However, it's not the same if you consistently say "No" to divert batters, according to a Bengals team source.

Even if it goes against the rules of the game, Tiwary and company have no justification for their generally poor performance. Even though they had the opposition at 100-odd for four, they again let them off the hook with the ball.

"I also missed a few simple catches, one of which was of my bowling. That's just part of the game, however," pacer Akash Deep said.

Kerala could have struggled to reach even 300 catches if those catches hadn't been shelled.

After that, Bengal reached 107/1 thanks to Abhimanyu Easwaran's intention with the bat. But nobody could muster any response until Easwaran left for a quick 72 off Saxena.

Even the usually reliable Anustup Majumdar was out for only two balls.

Kerala 363 (Akshay Chandran 106; Shahbaz Ahmed 4/73), to sum up the scores. Bengal 172/8 (Jalaj Saxena 7/67; Abhimanyu Easwaran 72). Day II at stumps.

Mumbai's collapse

On the second day, Chhattisgarh battled Mumbai in Raipur in a quite competitive manner. Mumbai finished their first innings at 351, lost their next six wickets for only 41, and resumed on 310/4.

The hosts, in reaction, started slowly but were able to overcome the visitors' bowlers thanks to an innings-long partnership between openers Shashank Chandrakar (56), and Rishabh Tiwari (25). After the game, Chhattisgarh had a score of 180/4.

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