'Could've bowled better'

H S Sharath, who shared the bowling spoils with skipper and fellow paceman R Vinay Kumar with three wickets each, felt that Karnataka could have bowled better on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy match against Bengal here on Thursday.

Having reduced the visitors to 41/4 inside 14 overs, the hosts allowed Bengal to finish day one on 312/9.

“It was a good wicket to bowl on early,” said Sharath after the day’s play. “Both Vinay (Kumar) and (A) Mithun had bowled well and when I came in, I got another wicket. We were going well till then but I think after that we could have bowled better. They built a good partnership in the middle. A wicket at that stage could have made a big difference.”

“Our spinners too could have bowled better during that stand by controlling the flow of runs. We could then have attacked more and gone for wickets,” he analysed.

Centurion for Bengal, Sudip Chatterjee said he was happy to do his job in such a critical situation. His 145 helped Bengal get past the 300-run mark. “We were under pressure for sure after we had lost four wickets early. My job was to shore-up the team and I am happy I was able to do that”, said Sudip. “This our first match of the season I am happy we did well and we are feeling good with the total right now.”