Kolkata, Feb 15 (FN Bureau) Bengal will be aiming to end their Ranji Trophy campaign on a positive note with a victory against Bihar in their final Elite Group B match at the Eden Gardens starting on Friday. With a win, two losses ( Mumbai and Kerala), and three draws so far, the Laxmi Ratan Shukla-coached side is currently placed in the sixth position with 12 points. With the knockouts out of their reach, the home side will look to give it their all to finish their campaign on a high. “Our main aim will be to finish the campaign with a victory. No doubt it will be an emotional game for me, but I don’t want the focus to be entirely on me. Rather, it should be on the team to do well. It has been a long journey, and I want to end it on a high,” Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary said ahead of the match. Wishing Manoj good luck, Shukla said, “I congratulate Manoj for having an amazing career. I had witnessed Manoj playing his first match, and now it has come down to the last.
Above all, I would want the team to win and finish the campaign on a high.” The last season’s runners-up will be looking to keep aside their back-to-back losses against Mumbai and Kerala and put up a fighting performance against a team who are currently struggling at the bottom of the points table. In the batting department, the hosts will look up to top-order batters Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sudip Kumar Gharami to deliver for them early on. While Easwaran will aim to convert his starts into big ones, Gharami, on the other hand, will look to score big in the final match. The middle order will once again heavily rely on the experienced Anustup Majumdar. The 39-year-old veteran batsman, who scored three centuries in the ongoing campaign, will look to give the Bihar bowlers a tough challenge.
Skipper Tiwary, who reached the milestone of 10,000 runs in first-class cricket this Ranji season, will hope to sign off on a high in front of the home fans. All-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed will aim to make an impact both with the bat and ball. The pace bowling department will be boosted by the arrival of Mukesh Kumar, who was released by the Indian team to play the Ranji game. Besides Mukesh, the in-form Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal and Mohammad Kaif will add more venom to the hosts’ attack. On the other hand, Bihar is struggling at the bottom of the table with just five points from six games, having lost three and drawn three.The visitors, in search of their first victory of the campaign, will surely be tested by a quality Bengal side.