Shahbaz Ahmed produced an impressive all-round show against Himachal Pradesh as Bengal remained on the verge of a second consecutive win in Ranji Trophy Group A on Wednesday.
The left-arm spinner grabbed 5/32 en route to his fourth five-wicket haul, while the pace duo of Ishan Porel (2/26) and Akash Deep (2/50) bagged two each as Bengal bundled out Himachal Pradesh for 130 in 46.5 overs to gain a sizeable first innings lead of 180 runs.
Bengal, in their second innings, were 89 for 1 at stumps on the second day with Koushik Ghosh (21 batting) and Sudip Kumar Gharami (32 batting) at the crease with an overall lead of 269 runs.
Resuming the day on 310 for 9, Bengal failed to add to their overnight total as Vaibhav Arora (2/40) trapped Anustup Majumdar (159) in the second ball of the day. Majumdar was the backbone of Bengal’s innings in his 207-ball knock, studded with 21 fours and two sixes.
In reply, Himachal suffered a body blow at the start of their innings as Shahbaz dismissed opener Raghav Dhawan (5) in his first over, in what was a captaincy masterstroke from veteran Manoj Tiwary.
Tiwary was standing in place of Abhimanyu Easwaran who is on national duty in the Test series against Bangladesh.
Opener Prashant Chopra (71 not out) kept his cool and played sensibly to add some crucial runs on the board.
But the other Himachal batters threw their wickets away as they lost half their side for 38 runs when Akash Deep cleaned up skipper Rishi Dhawan (1).
The only other batter to get to a double-digit score was No. 8 Mayank Dagar (18). Dagar added some much-needed runs for the visitors before being dismissed by Porel to have Himachal reeling at 99 for 7.
Shahbaz then dismissed Vaibabh Arora (2) and Kanwar Abhinany (1) for the addition of just eight runs en route to his first five-for at the Eden.
“I am thankful to Manoj (Tiwary) bhai for giving me the opportunity to bowl early on and I am happy to deliver for my team with both bat and ball,” Shahbaz, who also had made a valuable 49 off 97 balls in Bengal first innings, said.
“We will look to add as many runs as possible tomorrow and take the game away from them. Earlier I have picked two wickets here at Eden but bagging five is special.”
Brief Scores:
At Kolkata: Bengal 310 in 78.2 overs (Anustup Majumdar 159, Shahbaz Ahmed 49; Sidharth Sharma 5/69) and 89/1 in 19 overs vs Himachal Pradesh 130 in 46.5 overs (Prashant Chopra 71 not out; Ahmed 5/32, Ishan Porel 2/26, Akash Deep 2/50). Bengal lead by 269 runs.
At Sovima: Uttar Pradesh 551/4 declared in 117 overs (Dhruv Jurel 249, Rinku Singh 127 not out, Madhav Kaushik 107) vs Nagaland 136 in 42.4 overs (Imliwati Lemtur 36; Shivam Sharma 7/59) and following on 44/6 in 14 overs (Karan Sharma 2/10, Kartikeya Jaiswal 2/10, Shivam Mavi 2/14). Nagaland trail by 371 runs.
At Dehradun: Odisha 213 vs Uttarakhand 308/3 in 94 overs (Jiwanjot Singh 174 batting, Swapnil Singh 60 batting). Uttarakhand lead by 95 runs.
At Vadodara: Baroda 615 in 158 overs (Jyotsnil Singh 195, Priyanshu Moliya 144 not out, Pratyush Kumar 110, Vishnu Solanki 64; Sanjay Pahal 3/80) vs Haryana 70/1 in 22 overs. Haryana trail by 545 runs.
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