West Bengal opener Arindam Das blasted his maiden double century to put visitors in the driver's seat, with a massive 300-run first innings lead over Gujarat on the penultimate day of Elite Group 'B' Ranji Trophy match at Sardar Patel stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad on Saturday.
Das, who remained unbeaten on 117 yesterday, whacked 23 boundaries and a six to remain unconquered on 215, as visitors amassed 479, in reply to Gujarat's first-innings score of 179.
Das elegantly drove through the covers for a boundary to bring up his 200. Interestingly, it was for the first time that the Bengal opener entered the three-figure run score, having only one fifty and no century since making his debut two-year-ago.
Though the visitors cruised along comfortably, it looked that they would not surpass 400-run mark when eight batsmen were out when score was 342.
But tailender S Lahiri remained glued to the wicket with a vital 40, with four boundaries and put on a 106-run partnership for the ninth wicket with Das.
West Bengal was bowled out at tea after seamers Hitesh Majmudar and Shyamal Bhatt and leg spinner Timil Patel shared three wickets each.
Desperate to erase the season's dismal record on home-turf, Gujarat began their second essay on a cautious note and were 74 for the loss of their vice captain Nilesh Modi (23) who was adjudged leg before off left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee.
Scoreboard:
Gujarat Ist Innings: 179.
West Bengal Ist Innings (Overnight 275 for four):
A Das not out 215
N Haldipur c N Patel b Bhatt 22
A Chakraborthy b L Patel 3
S Sanyal lbw H Majmudar 21
D Gandhi c N Patel b T Patel 90
S Ahmed lbw Bhatt 10
L R Shukla c Sood b H Majmudar 15
A Roy c Parmar b T Patel 25
U Chatterjee b Bhatt 4
S Lahiri c T Patel b H Majmudar 40
R Bose c Thakar b T Patel 14
Extras: (b 3, lb 1, nb 7, w 9) 20
Total: (All out in 162 overs) 479
Fall of wickets: 1-49, 2-56, 3-92, 4-253, 5-275, 6-300, 7-337, 8-342, 9-448.
Bowling: L Patel 16.4-5-35-1, H Majmudar 31.2-8-83-3, S Bhatt 27-3-98-3, S Yadav 41-8-102-0, T Patel 40-1-131-3, A Sood 4-0-14-0, M Parmar 2-0-12-0.
Gujarat IInd Innings:
N Modi lbw Chatterjee 23
A Christian not out 37
N Patel not out 11
Extras: (lb 1, w 1, 1 nb) 3
Total: (For one wicket) 74
Fall of wickets: 1-52
Bowling: R Bose 9-5-12-0, S Sanyal 6-1-16-0, L R Shukla 3-1-10-0, Lahiri 6-1-25-0, Chatterjee 4-1-10-1.
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