Meditation does the trick for Sudip Chatterjee

Sudip Chatterjee is a patient man and looks like a batsman cut out for first-class cricket. He takes his time to settle in, does not appear flustered if wickets fall in clumps at the other end, keeps his shots on the ground and sets himself up for long innings.

It's a lot like meditation. You need to be patient to get in the zone, not get distracted by what's happening around you and develop a habit of being in one position for long durations. Both his first-class hundreds have been long innings - 192 off 303 balls and 145 off 247. Chatterjee's unblemished concentration en route to his second century, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, showed mediation had indeed a role to play in his innings.

"I like to meditate a day or two before the match," Chatterjee said after the day's play. "I close my eyes, think about myself, my batting, and how to prepare for long innings."

His soft-spoken personality bears likeness to that of VVS Laxman, who had joined the Bengal team as batting consultant during their pre-season camp. On Thursday, it appeared Chatterjee had benefited from the advice he got from the former India batsman. Primarily a back-foot player, Chatterjee played the ball late, used his supple wrists to flick the ball whenever it was offered on his pads, and swept the spinners without much difficulty later on in the day.

"He [Laxman] spent a week with us before we came here, so he helped me on my technique, the mentality… these things were covered," Chatterjee said. "He told me a bit about my front foot. Keeping that in mind I worked on my front-foot game and it helped me in this match."

Chatterjee did it all when the team was in the dumps on their first day of the season. The onus was on the 23-year-old when he came in at 15 for 2 and saw two more wickets fall in the next nine overs. He was joined by Wriddhiman Saha, who has not been part of the action lately. Saha did score a fifty in his last match, against Sri Lanka in a Test, but was ruled out with a hamstring injury and was recovering when most of the other first-class players were playing matches around the country. Chatterjee said Saha's presence helped him a lot and lifted the mood in the middle during the course of their 173-run stand that lasted nearly 50 overs.

"I got great support from him [Saha]," Chatterjee said. "It's not the first time such a thing happened. He always stays so positive on the field and whenever there's a partnership with him it feels so good that he's positive and we joke around in the middle, so it helps us.

"We were under a bit of pressure early on since we were 40 [26] for 3, so my job was to take the team out of that position - to build a partnership and place the team in a good position. It's our first Ranji Trophy match [of the season] and it was a successful day, so it feels good. It's great to score a hundred in the first match and it will help my confidence."

Chatterjee is neither unfamiliar with the Karnataka attack nor with the role he has to play in his team. Last season, he was Bengal's highest run-scorer with a tally of 584, and against Karnataka he had scored 57 and 59, albeit in a losing cause at home. His century on Thursday made it his third consecutive 50-plus score against the defending champions, and he hoped his runs would help his team get into a better position this time.

"The pitch is good for batting and we still have a wicket left," Chatterjee said. "If we get another 30-40 runs and score 350 it will be great. After that it's up to our bowling and fielding. If we do those well, then we can surely defend it.