Left-arm spinner Vinay Choudhary's unflagging discipline fetched him his career-best figures of six for 62 and aided Punjab to bowl out an error-prone Bengal to 187 in the first innings of the Ranji Trophy Group B match at the Jadavpur University Campus ground on Monday.
In reply, Punjab was 47 for the loss of two wickets at stumps on the opening day.
Bengal won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that expected to assist spinners. Barring Sudip Chatterjee (52 off 142) and Shreevats Goswami (57 off 100), most of the home batsmen lacked application.
Manpreet Gony and Siddarth Kaul bowled tight lines and the former gave Punjab a good start by removing the Bengal openers.
Punjab introduced spin in the 15th over as leg-spinner Mayank Markande along with Vinay bowled well in tandem and kept the pressure on the batsmen. Vinay opened his account by snaring Manoj Tiwary, who was caught in the slips while attempting to drive.
Anustup Majumder gifted his wicket to Markande and Writtick Chatterjee was trapped in front in the first ball off Vinay as Bengal was reduced to 53 for five in two hours.
Sudip and Goswami then did the repair work by adding 65 runs for the sixth wicket.
The Bengal southpaw duo exhibited fine footwork and used soft hands to place the ball in gaps and rotated the strike.
Just when the partnership was building, Sudip, who hit a patient half-century, perished while trying to go for an overambitious shot. Vinay then removed Goswami to put Punjab firmly on top.
“We bowled well in pairs and it helped,” said Vinay.
Punjab in reply began in solid fashion but Mukesh Kumar picked up two wickets in consecutive deliveries to dent the visitor on a day the home side batsmen failed to deliver.
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