Shahbaz Ahmed shone with a brilliant five-wicket haul as Bengal tightened its grip over its Ranji Trophy Group-A match against Himachal Pradesh at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.
Resuming at 310 for nine, Bengal lost centurion Anustup Majumdar’s wicket in the second delivery of the day without adding anything to its total.
The host bundled out Himachal Pradesh for 130 and posted 89 for one in its second innings to enjoy a sizeable lead of 269 runs at the close of the second day’s play.
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With an aim to exploit the moisture on the pitch, Bengal captain Manjo Tiwary surprised the opposition by introducing Shahbaz as a new ball bowler. It worked wonders as Himachal batters tried to attack the left-arm spinner.
Shahbaz tasted success in his first over by removing Raghav Dhawan.
Soon, Ishan Porel had southpaw Ankit Kalsi caught behind.
Before Himachal could settle down, Shahbaz had taken the wickets of Amit Kumar and Akash Vashisht. Akash Deep and Sayan Shekhar Mandal joined the party to reduce the tourists to 64 for six.
Opener Prashant Chopra, who held one end resolutely, added 35 with Mayank Dagar before Ishan again took the help of his younger brother Abishek to break the stand.
Shahbaz returned to dismiss Vaibhav Arora and KD Singh to complete his five-for.
Akash Deep secured another wicket even as Chopra (71 n.o., 149b, 8x4) displayed lone resistance till the end.
Bengal openers, Abhisek Das (35, 20b, 5x4, 2x6) and Koushik Ghosh (21 n.o., 60b, 2x4), played contrasting knocks to gather 36.
While Das scored at a faster rate, dealing mostly in big hits on either side, Koushik valued his wicket.
After Das was trapped lbw by Vaibhav, Koushik and Sudip Gharami (32, 34b, 5x4) inflated Bengal’s lead.
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