Bengal all but reach semi-final after Chatterjee double ton

Young right-hander Writtick Chatterjee struck an unbeaten double hundred as Bengal virtually killed the Ranji Trophy quarter-final contest against defending champions Gujarat with a day's play left.
After Abhimanyu Easwaran (114, 345 balls) had done the primary job of deflating the Gujarat bowlers on the third day, relatively unknown Chatterjee took the centrestage scoring a career-best 213 with Bengal making Gujarat bite the dust with a total of 483 for 4.
Easwaran duly completed his second century of the match- seventh in his 30-match first-class career before Chatterjee took centre stage. Easwaran's knock had 13 boundaries and two sixes.
With an overall lead of 613, the final day's play is as inconsequential as it can be unless Manoj Tiwary wants to press for an outright win against Parthiv Patel's men.

If he intends to frustrate the last year's champions further, then he might well give Chatterjee a chance to have a shot at triple hundred.
While Easwaran is sure to be adjudged 'Player of the Match' for his twin hundreds opening the innings, Chatterjee's emergence as a dependable middle-order batsman has been a big plus.

He scored an unbeaten 102 -- his maiden first-class hundred in the final group league game against Goa. That was also a second innings hundred like the one in Jaipur.
So far Chatterjee has faced 357 balls and has hit 23 boundaries and a six.

He has been a prolific club-level performer for Bhowanipore for a while but this is the first season, where he is showing signs of graduating to the first-class level as a batsman.
Before the last two matches, his claim to fame was getting Tamil Nadu's final wicket in a low-scoring thriller at the Chepauk, during the 2013-14 season.
It was an inspired gamble by the then skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla on a rank turner that had paid off.
After Easwaran was caught and bowled by Iswar Chaudhary having shared a 121-run stand, Chatterjee added another 166 runs with skipper Tiwary (59, 177 balls) for third wicket.

He added 88 runs for the fourth wicket with Shreevats Goswami (32).
Brief Scores: 354 and 483/4 (Writtick Chatterjee 213 batting, Abhimanyu Easwaran 114, Manoj Tiwary 59).
Gujarat 1st Innings 224. Bengal are 613 runs ahead.