Bengal relegated

Pacer P Vijaykumar and part time bowler Y Gnaneswara Rao shared the spoils as Andhra Pradesh carved out an emphatic 101-run victory over Bengal in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B in Kolkata on Thursday.

Set a target of 214 for victory, last year's losing finalists Bengal yet again put up a lacklustre batting show and folded up for 112 shortly before the tea interval on the third day of the four-day tie to suffer the humiliation of being relegated to the Plate division. 

Vijaykumar, who lapped up five Bengal wickets in the first essay, repeated the feat (5/56) to run through the Bengal top order at the Eden Gardens.

Gnaneswara Rao (5/16) then polished off the second half of the hosts' batting line-up, as Andhra Pradesh collected five points to boost their tally to 17 on completion of their league engagements.

Uttar Pradesh, Andhra's close rivals for the second semi-final spot from the group, are now on 14 points, and have taken a first innings lead in their unfinished match against Hyderabad on the latter's turf.

Eight of the Bengal batsman got out on single digit scores, and four of them even failed to open their account.

Only Manoj Tiwary (35) and skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla (39) put up a semblance of a fight.

In the morning, resuming their second essay at the overnight score of 147/6, the visitors were all out for 190 under 15 overs, with Ranadeb Bose returning figures of 7/74. 

Skipper MSK Prasad (54) was the top scorer.

Bengal wrapped up their fixture with eight points.

Scorecard:

Andhra Pradesh (1st innings): 121
Bengal (1st innings): 98
Andhra Pradesh (2nd innings, overnight 147/6):
H Watekar c Saha b Mukherjee 67
LNP Reddy c Saha b Paul 12
D Kalyankrishna lbw b Bose 12
Y Gnaneswara Rao c Dinda b Bose 6
ASK Varma c Saha b Bose 6
B Sumanth lbw b Bose 1
MSK Prasad c Saha b Bose 54
A Pradeep c Mondal b Paul 22
S Rao c Saha b Bose 2
I Raju c Majumdar b Bose 0
P Vijay Kumar not out 6
Extras: (lb 1, w 1) 2
Total: (all out in 64.1 overs) 190

Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-88, 3-98, 4-104, 5-104, 6-109, 7-154, 8-159, 9-159

Bowling: RR Bose 26.1-6-74-7, SS Paul 20-7-41-2, A Dinda 9-2-38-0, R Chowdhary 3-1-19-0, P Mukherjee 6-2-17-1

Bengal (2nd innings):
A Majumdar c Prasad b Vijay Kumar 8
A Das c Shankara Rao b Vijay Kumar 9
W Saha c Watekar b Vijay Kumar 0
M Tiwary b Gnaneswara Rao 35
K Mondal lbw b Vijay Kumar 0
LR Shukla lbw b Vijay Kumar 39
R Chowdhary c Prasad b Gnaneswara Rao 1
P Mukherjee lbw b Gnaneswara Rao 0
A Dinda c Watekar b Gnaneswara Rao 0
R Bose lbw b Gnaneswara Rao 8
SS Paul not out 6
Extras: (lb 5, nb 1) 6
Total: (all out in 29.5 overs) 112

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-9, 3-27, 4-35, 5-65, 6-70, 7-70, 8-88, 9-98

Bowling: D Kalyankrishna 6-1-18-0, P Vijay Kumar 13-3-56-5, I Raju 4-0-15-0, G Shankara Rao 1-0-2-0, Y Gnaneswara Rao 5.5-3-16-5