Bengal take on Karnataka in crucial Ranji game

Mysore: A depleted Bengal sans former skipper Saurav Ganguly will take on Karnataka in their Ranji Trophy Super league match at the Gangotri Glades platinum jubilee grounds here on Tuesday.

Bengal will go into the four-day game without the services of Ganguly, who opted out of the tie. Even Laskhmi Ratan Shukla looks doubtful as the Bengal skipper is suffering from a muscle injury and would take a call Tuesday morning.

"Shukla has a muscle chasm. We worked on him Monday at the nets. But we will take a call only Tuesday," said Bengal coach Roger Binny.

Karnataka too would be without Rahul Dravid, who has been the mainstay of their inexperienced batting and is in ominous form.

Karnataka have eight points so far, while Bengal have six and a victory here could help either team to consolidate their position in securing a place in the knockout stage.

The match will be an interesting contest between the Karnataka and Bengal fast bowlers on a sporting wicket which assists pace and bounce.

The yolk of the Bengal pace attack will be thrust on Ranadeb Bose's shoulders. The strapping quick has a competent partner in Ashok Dinda who could be tricky on this surface, which has produced two results in three first class matches.

Karnataka also have a sharp and accurate pace trio in R Vinay Kumar, who returned with career best figures of eight for 32 against Delhi, Abhimanyu Mithun and S Aravind.

Mithun has been a revelation, bagging 11 wickets, including a hat trick on his first class debut against Uttar Pradesh at Meerut. Left arm seamer S Arvind also impressed during his five-wicket against Delhi in the second innings at the Roshnara grounds.

In the batting department, KB Pawan and Manish Pandey, who hit an impressive 194 in the season-opener against UP, have been amongst runs, but all over the hosts have been rather inconsistent.

And without Dravid, the onus will be on senior batsman Robin Uthappa to put up his hand and bat responsibly to shore Karnataka's batting.

"The way the boys, especially the bowlers, have been performing, I am confident that we can win this game," said Karnataka coach Sanath Kumar.

Teams:

Karnataka: Robin Uthappa (c), Pawan K B, Amit Verma, Manish Pandey, Akhil B, Ganesh satish, Gautam CM (wk), Sunil Joshi, Vinay Kumar R, Abhimanyu Mithun, Arvind S, Staurt Binny, Appanna KP, Udit Patel, Ryan Ninan.

Bengal: Lakshmi Ratan Shukla (c), Deep Das Gupta, A Jhunjunwalla, D Chakrabarthy, Arindam Das, Soursis Lahiri, Shib Sagar Singh, Ranadeb Bose, I Saxena, Sourav Sarkar, SS Mondal, Manoj Tiwari, Ashok Dhinda, Wriddhiman saha, Rohan Banarjee, Arindam Ghosh.

Hyderabad clash with Gujarat

Hyderabad: N Arjun Yadav will lead Hyderabad in their four-day Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat beginning here from Tuesday.

The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) on Monday announced the 15-member squad here.

Teams:

Hyderabad: N Arjun Yadav (Cap), T Suman, D B Raji Teja, Abhinav Kumar W K, S Anoop Pai, A T Rayudu, M P Arjun, Ahmed Quadri, Alfred Absolom, Ashwin Yadav, M A Khadar, Ibrahim Khaleel W K, Anridh Singh, A Lalithmohan and D Rusi Raj.

Coach: S L Venkatapathi Raju. Manager: Yemmanuel

Gujarat: Patthiv Patel (Captain & WK), Jay Desai, Rikin Chauhan, Niraj Patel, Rajul Bhatt, Bhavik Thakar, Salil Yadav, Siddarath Trivedi, Ashraf Makda, Hitesh Majmudar, Mehul Patel, Tamil patel, Jayesh Makla, Vimal Tandel and Digant Popat.

Coach: Vijay Patel, Assistant Coach: J Sahegal, Manager: Pravin Bulsara.

Umpires: S K Tarapore and S Ravi.

Match referee: S Ramesh.