Offie Bijoy Chatterjee spins Bengal back into contention

: Off-spinner Writtick Bijoy Chatterjee Friday bowled Bengal back into contention in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group 'B' match against Tamil Nadu with a five-wicket haul at the M A Chidambaram stadium here.

Trailing by 74 runs in the first innings, Chatterjee's efforts (5 for 22) helped Bengal dismiss Tamil Nadu for 141 in 62.5 overs, leaving the visitors a target of 216 to secure its first win of the season.

Chatterjee removed the first innings centurion Baba Aparajith (21) and N Jagadeesan (38) while fellow spinner Pradipta Pramanik dismissed captain B Indrajith (4).

Some late order resistance by J Kousik (10) and M Mohammed (23 not out) helped the home team stretch the lead.

Bengal began the chase cautiously with left-handed opener Abhishek Kumar Raman, who made 98 in the first knock and Kousik Ghosh (13) seeing off the early threat from T Natarajan and Mohammed.

Rahil S Shah struck the first blow, getting Ghosh caught by Indrajith.

Abhishek Raman and captain Manoj Tiwari (13 batting) added 35 runs before the former fell to Kousik for 53 (58 balls, 7 fours).

Bengal requires 129 more runs on the final day Saturday to secure a much-neeed win.

Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 263 all out in 106 overs (B Aparajith 103, M Kaushik Gandhi 51, Ishan Porel 5 for 48, Pradipta Pramanik 3 for 82) and 141 all out in 62.5 overs (N Jagadeesan 38, Writtick Bijoy Chatterjee 5 for 22) vs Bengal 189 all out in 63.5 overs (Abhishek Raman 98, Rahil Shah 5 for 46, M Mohammed 4 for 39) and 87 for 2 in 30 overs (Abhishek Raman 53).

At Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala 62 and 390 for 8 in 102 overs (Sachin Baby 143, Vishnu Vinod 155 batting, Kuldeep Sen 3 for 63) vs Madhya Pradesh 328 all out in 120 overs (Rajat Patidar 73, Naman Ojha 79, Jalaj Saxen 4 for 120).

At Hyderabad: Himachal Pradesh 351 all out in 126.4 overs (P S Chopra 110, M J Dagar 61, Tanay Thyagarajan 4 for 86) vs Hyderabad 352 all out in 130.5 overs (Akshat Reddy 99, T Ravi Teja 75, Arpit Gulera 3 for 64).