Kalyani (WB): Mohammed Shami on Monday bowled a couple of incisive spells to get three wickets but Jammu and Kashmir did well enough to reach 198 for 5 against Bengal on the second day of the Ranji Trophy semi-final, which remains evenly poised going into the third day here.
Bengal’s first innings ended at 328 after starting the day at 249 for 5 with Auqib Nabi (5/87 in 26 overs) completing another five-wicket haul and a milestone of 50 wickets in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season.
Bengal’s in-form batter Sudip Kumar Gharami (146, 246 balls) could only add 10 more runs to his overnight unbeaten score of 136 as Nabi got one to tail in slightly and found his pads.
Veteran Sumanta Gupta (39 off 36 balls) did give the charge but the hosts couldn’t press home the advantage with both Nabi and left-arm seamer Sunil Kumar (3/41in 20 overs) used the second new ball to good effect.
When Jammu and Kashmir batted, Shami, the hero of India’s many overseas wins, bowled a probing first spell in which both openers Shubham Khajuria (3) and Tawer Hussain (2) were found plumb-infront while Shubham Pundir was snapped in the slips by Sudip Chatterjee of an away going delivery from Mukesh Kumar.
At 13 for 3, J&K were dire in straits before their seasoned skipper Paras Dogra (58, 112) joined forces with young IPL star Abdul Samad (82 off 85 balls) as they counter-attacked with great gusto.
While Samad started by counter-attacking Shami (3/60 in 13 overs) and Mukesh (2/40 in 13 overs) with a flurry of fours, Dogra was resolute at the other end during the stand of 143 for the fourth wicket that brought J&K back into the business.
Dogra also completed 10,000 runs in Ranji Trophy, a testimony to his longevity.
Where Bengal lost a lot of momentum was due to Abhimanyu Easwaran’s pedestrian captaincy. Once Samad had hit a few boundaries, Easwaran deployed a defensive field, and brought in Shahbaz Ahmed (0/19 in 8 overs) into the attack.
One shouldn’t go by figures as Shahbaz didn’t bowl a single wicket-taking delivery. He came over-the-wicket and bowled on Samad and Dogra’s pads trying to stop the flow of boundaries.
Instead of close-in catchers, Easwaran kept a long-off, deep extra cover and deep mid-wicket to stop the boundaries. The third pacer in the line-up — all-rounder Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal hardly clocked 120 kmph and was the easiest among the lot to play.
When the duo was soring freely, Easwaran didn’t think about giving a short burst to either Shami or Akash Deep, which could made the difference.
It was Shami, who came back in his second spell and got rid of a dangerous Samad, caught by Akash Deep.
Dogra, whose defence looked impregnable till then, then gave a catch to Suraj Sindhu off Mukesh.
From a comfortably 156 for 3, J&K slumped to 156 for 5 before Abid Mushtaq (26 batting) and Kanhaiya Wadhawan (10 batting) added 42 runs for the unbroken sixth-wicket stand.
Brief Scores: Bengal 1st Innings 328 in 97.1 overs (Sudip Kumar Gharami 146, Abhimanyu Easwaran 49, Auqib Nabi 5/87) vs J&K 1st Innings 198/5 in 51 overs (Abdul Samad 82, Paras Dogra 58, Mohammed Shami 3/60).
