Bengal 199 for 5 (Sudip Kumar Gharami 112, Sumanta Gupta 22, Sasikanth 2-43) trail Andhra 295 (Ricky Bhui 83, Mukesh Kumar 5-66, Akash Deep 4-79) by 96 runs
Day two in Visakhapatnam began with Andhra hoping to stretch their overnight total. They didn’t get far. Mukesh Kumar, already in rhythm, removed both tail-enders in the space of four balls to collect 5 for 66. Akash Deep chimed in with 4 for 79, a yorker to Saurabh Kumar bringing the innings to a close at 295.
Even so, Andhra carried the early momentum. Abhimanyu Easwaran nicked off for 1 in the fifth over, Shaik Rasheed at cover diving full-length to his left for a grab that will do the social-media rounds. Within the hour Bengal were 43 for 3, Sudip Chatterjee and Anustup Majumdar gone, and the reply looked fragile.
Enter Sudip Kumar Gharami. The 26-year-old played the situation rather than the scoreboard, first settling in with Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal in an 80-run stand. There was the odd play-and-miss, a bit of frenetic running, but gradually the footwork sharpened. Late in the evening session he swivel-pulled a Kalidindi Raju bouncer to the rope at deep backward square to bring up his seventh first-class century—a small nod of the helmet, nothing extravagant.
Andhra stuck to a mostly short-ball plan after tea, aiming at the ribs of both Gharami and new partner Sumanta Gupta. It nearly worked when a top-edge sailed past fine leg, yet the pair closed on 199 for 5, unbeaten in a 46-run partnership that has at least kept the match alive from Bengal’s perspective.
Plenty still to do: Bengal remain 96 adrift, and the second new ball is only ten overs away. But with Gharami still there, and the lower order capable of hanging around, the visitors will feel the deficit is manageable—provided someone offers real support on the third morning.
