Ganguly back with a half-ton

Centuries by Abhisekh Jhunjhunwala and Manoj Tiwary and an unbeaten half-century by Sourav Ganguly helped Bengal post a strong 465 for four on the second day of the Ranji Trophy Elite Group B match against Rajasthan at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.

Bengal, resuming at 80/1 in response to the visitors' first innings score of 193, lost only three wickets - Arindam Das, Jhunjhunwala and Deep Dasgupta - before the close of play.

The two overnight batsmen Das and Jhunjhunwala put on 201 runs for the second wicket before both fell on the score.

Jhunjhunwala scored his third Ranji century and his second this current season. Jhunjhunwala scored 115 (182 b, 19x4) before he was caught by Sumit Khatri off the bowling of Aslam Khan.

Das scored a polished 82 (205 b, 11x4) before the fell victim to Sumit Khatri caught by Rohit Jhalani.

Manoj Tiwari scored his second century this season after his 210 against Mumbai. At close of play he was unbeaten on 152 (173 b, 20x4).

Giving Tiwari company was Ganguly who scored a quickfire 72 off only 73 deliveries with 14 hits to the fence just a day before the selectors pick the squad for the home series against the West Indies.

Bengal skipper Dasgupta scored 38 before he was bowled by Pankaj Singh.

Rajasthan skipper Ajay Jadeja employed seven bolwers to get wickets. Singh, Gehlot, Khan and Khatri claimed one wickets each for Rajasthan.

Scorecard

Rajasthan 1st innings: 193 all out

Bengal 1st innings (overnight 80/1):
Subhamoy Das c R Jhalani b S Khatri 82
Arindam Das c N Doru b S Gehlot 0
A Jhunjhunwala c S Khatri b A Khan 115
Manoj Tiwary batting 152
Deep Dasgupta b P Singh 38
S Ganguly batting 72
Extras (b-0, lb-2, w-0, nb-4) 6
Total (for four wickets, in 119 overs) 465

Fall of wickets: 1/0, 2/201, 3/201, 4/322

Bowling: Pankaj Singh 29-6-95-1, S Gehlot 22-4-98-1, Sumit Khatri 28-1-113-1, Ajay Jadeja 9-3-31-0, Aslam Khan 22-5-83-1, Rahul Kanwat 5-2-16-0, Rohit Sharma 4-1-27-0.