Pacer Mohammed Shami produced a vintage display of fast bowling, claiming four crucial wickets to guide Bengal to a dominant eight-wicket victory over Uttarakhand in their Ranji Trophy Group C encounter on Saturday. The seasoned pacer’s spell broke the visitors’ resistance and set up a comfortable chase for Bengal.
Mohammed Shami leads Bengal’s bowling charge
On the final day, Kunal Chandela's 68 and Bhupen Lalwani's 12 runs helped Uttarakhand to a steady start from a score of 165 for 2. However, things changed for the worse for the home team after Shami got his act together. Very accurately, he made full use of the morning conditions and as a result of his brilliant final day performance, the out-of-favour India quick got his superb figures to be four wickets for 38 runs in 24.4 overs. Besides that, Akash Deep and Ishan Porel were able to take two wickets each. Shami and the other Bengal pacers eventually took out the visitors for 265 as they lost the last eight wickets for only 92 runs.
Shami began his devastation by getting Kunal Chandela's leg stump in front of the wicket for 72 and then, within very short period of time after lunch, succeeded in sending off Abhay Negi, Janmejay Joshi and Rajan Kumar as well. Prashant Chopra (82) and Chandela were the only two batsmen of the home team going relatively well against the bowling of the visiting team, while the pacers from Bengal, on the other hand, did not let up the pressure even for a moment.
It took Bengal less than 30 overs to record the win as they lost just one wicket in 29.3 overs when their target was 156. The captain Abhimanyu Easwaran, who led by example, was the main architect of the victory with his correct 71 not out off 82 balls, which had six fours bound together. Along with Sudip Kumar Gharami, who got to his 46 runs with five fours and one six in a quick manner, Easwaran was the main reason behind Bengal's successful run chase. It was Vishal Bhati's unbeaten 16 that ultimately sealed the victory which ensured Bengal pocketed six points that will help them in Group C further.
