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All you need to know: BEN vs SAU | Ranji Final

image-le5mljf7Akash Deep decimated Madhya Pradesh [Twitter]

The Ranji Trophy 2022/23 finale is here, where Bengal will take on Saurashtra at Eden Gardens in Kolkata from February 16-20. Bengal have played 14 Ranji finals but could win only on two occasions (1938-39 and 1989-90) with a final conversion rate of 14.3%. On the other hand, Saurashtra have played seven finals, winning 3 of them during the seasons 1936-37 as Nawanagar, 1943-44 as Western India and recently in 2019-20 as Saurashtra, beating the current counterparts Bengal. They have a conversion rate of 42.8% once they enter the summit clash in the red-ball format. 

If you go by the history of the tournament stats, then Saurashtra is definitely one of the strongest teams, at least on current forms.


What happened in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy Final?

It was then Saurashtra versus Bengal in the First-Class final played at the home ground of the former, Rajkot. Batting first, the Jaydev Unadkat-led side rode on the masterclass hundred from Arpit Vasavada and fifties from Cheteshwar Pujara, Vishvaraj Jadeja and Avi Barot to post 425 runs on the board after their first innings. For Bengal, Akash Deep was the star with a four wickets haul with valid support from Shahbaz Ahmed, who finished with three wickets.


Despite the fighting knocks of Sudip Chatterjee, Wriddhiman Saha, Anustup Majumdar and Arnab Nandi, the then Abhimanyu Easwaran-led side were folded out for 381 runs, handing Saurashtra a first-innings lead of 44 runs. Saurashtra did bat for 34 overs in the second innings, scoring 105 runs for the loss of 4 wickets, when the stumps were called for the fifth day, and Unadkat & co. lifted the trophy, which was Saurashtra's third in their history.


Bengal's road to the final:

The team was placed in Elite Group A alongside Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda, Odisha, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland. They topped the group with 32 points from 7 matches, winning four (against Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Baroda and Haryana), losing one to Odisha and drawing two games with Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. 

A collective team effort from Bengal countered Jharkhand's challenge in the Quarterfinal, winning the match by nine wickets and progressing to the Semifinal to face the defending champions Madhya Pradesh. 

One would have thought that their journey would last in the semis, but centuries from Sudip Gharami and Anustup Majumdar, followed by a superb five-fer from Akash Deep, set up the match in favour of the two-time champions. 


Saurashtra's road to the final: 

The team was in Elite Group B alongside Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Assam and Hyderabad. Seeing the teams in the group, cricket pundits didn't gave them a chance. 

But as the almighty Shri Krishna said: "Perform actions without expectations of results", and despite their star players - Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Jaydev Unadkat - being irregular, they finished second in the group. They had 26 points from 7 matches, winning three (against Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad), losing to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and drawing two games (against Assam and Maharashtra).

In the Quarterfinal against Punjab, they came back unbelievably from being behind in the first innings in the knockouts. A century from Parth Bhut helped the side to a decent first innings, before centuries from Punjab's Prabhsimran Singh and Naman Dhir pushed Saurashtra aback.

Despite being behind in the match, the team from the West Zone redeemed themselves by the contributions of Vasavada, Chirag Jani, Prerak Mankad and Bhut. 

Arpit Vasavada, the stand-in Saurashtra skipper, batted Karnataka out of the semis with his double hundred in the first innings, which followed by an unbeaten 47 in the second innings. If Mayank Agarwal's 249 was the highlight in Karnataka's first innings, Vasavada showed great intent under pressure and was ably supported by Sheldon Jackson, who smashed a daddy hundred. 

Saurashtra had the first-innings lead, and Karnataka needed to win the game to qualify for the 'D-Day'. Nikin Jose's hundred helped Karnataka to set 115 runs for Saurashtra, and the latter was in a spot of bother with 42/5, but then Vasavada showed great maturity to put the team in the Final, defeating the South Indian team by 4 wickets. 


Squad Update

Bengal

The Manoj Tiwary-led side has a serious headache as star all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed missed the net practice session on Tuesday due to a fever. But since he has two days to recover, he might end up playing. 

If Shahbaz doesn't play, Pradipta Pramanik is likely to get a pat, and Akash Ghatak will come in as well. Pramanik was one of the stars of Bengal in their Semifinal victory, but he might miss the final clash if Ghatak gets a nod ahead and Ahmed is fit enough to play.


Saurashtra

Meanwhile, BCCI has released Jaydev Unadkat from the Indian squad, which is playing in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, to be available for the Final. Unadkat will be leading against Bengal in the finale fixture, and with his entry, Saurashtra are looking even more dangerous. 

image-le5mq917


Revised DRS for the final encounter

The Ranji final will see a "full version" of the Decision Review System (DRS) after many teams request such a supply since the QF stage of the tournament.

BCCI used the limited DRS during the 2019-20 semi-finals and final, which didn't have ball-tracking and ultra-edge, which is much-needed if a correct decision had to be made. This summit clash will see the full version of DRS, which includes all of these important parameters, and it will lead to a proper decision-making with the Ranji Trophy at stake.

When DRS was first added in Ranji, it didn't have those above-mentioned parameters and hence the third umpire didn't have ample evidence to overturn the on-field decision, leading to many unfair decisions. Thus, to overcome these errors, the board has now included the use of the technology to go full-proof.