The Duleep Trophy match between East Zone and North Zone faded into the periphery as all eyes were turned on Sourav Ganguly. How would he respond from a minor injury-lay off? Bigger still, how would he fight back after being sidelined from the Indian team that has been his domain for the past five years?
Ganguly turned his arm over to claim two wickets, but the comeback was still incomplete on day 1 of the four-day match in Rajkot on Thursday.
East Zone, having bowled out North for 178 in the first innings, were struggling on 77 for one at the end of the day. The prince of Kolkata creamed the off side for four fours in his 28-ball unbeaten innings of 19 but how he responds to this pressure from hereon will be crucial to his future in Indian cricket.
East lost two of their most-experienced batsmen in Shiv Sunder Das (0) and Rohan Gavaskar (15) and will look to captain Ganguly and all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla (0 not out) to lift them in the game.
Amit Bhandari and Gagandeep Singh got two wickets each for North.
Earlier in the day, East pacers Ranadeb Bose and Shib Shankar Paul ran through the top oder to leave North Zone reeling at 49 for four.
The lower middle-order, wicket-keeper Pankaj Dharmani (35), Yashpal Singh (25) and Sarandeep Singh (26), put up a some resistance but even that was quickly thwarted.
Youngster VRV Singh, who had impressed with his pace in the recently-concluded Challenger Series, played a defiant knock of 46 from 35 balls. He slammed four boundaries and two sixes in a last gasp effort to take North to a total of 178, after they had lost their eighth wicket on the score of 129.
Scorecard
North Zone (1st innings):
R S Ricky c Das b Bose 13
S Dhawan b Bose 1
Sangram Singh c Dasgupta b Paul 8
D Mongia c Das b Paul 4
P Dharmani lbw Rao 35
Yashpal Singh c Dasgupta b Bose 25
Sarandeep Singh lbw Paul 26
A Mishra c Dasgupta b Bose 8
V R Singh c Nadeem b Ganguly 46
Gagandeep Singh lbw Ganguly 3
A Bhandari not out 0.
Extras: (b 5, lb 3, nb 1) 9
Total: 178
Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-27, 3-31, 4-49, 5-87, 6-109, 7-129, 8-129, 9-171, 10-178.
Bowling: Paul 20-3-51-3, Bose 14-6-45-4, Ganguly 12.4-5-38-2, Rao 8-2-22-1, Nadeem 3-1-14-0.
East Zone (1st innings):
S S Das c Dharmani b Gagandeep Singh 0
Arindam Das c Dharmani b Gagandeep Singh 9
S V Saravanan c Sarandeep Singh b Bhandari 30
R S Gavaskar b Bhandari 15
S C Ganguly not out 19
L R Shukla not out 0.
Extras: (lb 2, nb 2) 4
Total: (4 wickets, 30 overs) 77
To bat: R R Bose, S S Rao, D Dasgupta, S Nadeem, S S Paul.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-27, 3-54, 4-59,.
Bowling: Gagandeep Singh 12-4-18-2, Bhandari 12-4-41-2, Singh 6-2-16-0 (2nb).
