Bengal collapse for 143 at Eden Gardens before Shami strikes twice in two balls

Bengal were bowled out for 143 on their first Ranji Trophy appearance at Eden Gardens in a year before Mohammed Shami struck twice in two balls to pull the day back

Maharashtra won the toss, chose to bowl and had the Elite Group C leaders 72 for 7 inside 22 overs on Monday, with only two Bengal batters passing 19.

Bengal were all out for 143 in 36.5 overs, a total that owed almost everything to Abishek Porel and a late eighth-wicket stand.

Shami answered with the ball, bowling Maharashtra captain Prithvi Shaw and trapping Digvijay Patil lbw off consecutive deliveries in his fourth over. Bad light closed the day with the visitors 21 for 2, trailing by 122.

Three down inside five overs

Rajvardhan Hangargekar had Bengal captain Abhimanyu Easwaran caught by Sachin Dhas for 10, and Pradeep Dadhe removed Ankur Paul and Suraj Jaiswal in the overs that followed.

Bengal were 18 for 3, and the innings never settled. Sudip Chatterjee, short of runs coming into the round, was lbw to Tanay Sanghvi for 7 from 21 balls, and Sudip Kumar Gharami was bowled by the same bowler for 19.

Shahbaz Ahmed fell for a three-ball duck, caught and bowled by Hangargekar, and Sumanta Gupta made 7 before edging Dadhe to Dhas at 72 for 7.

Dadhe was the pick of the attack with 3 for 45 from 14 overs, five of them maidens, on a pitch that had been left with little grass.

Porel and Pramanik stop the slide

Porel and Pradipta Pramanik then added 66 for the eighth wicket, the only partnership of substance in the innings.

Porel made 54 from 67 balls with eight fours and was the last man out, caught by Ankit Bawne off Siddhesh Veer.

Pramanik contributed 31 from 43 and was caught by Patil off Veer at 138, after which Shami fell for a duck and the innings ended on 143 with 14 extras in it.

Sanghvi finished with 3 for 30 from nine overs, Hangargekar took 2 for 42 and Veer 2 for 14 from 5.5 overs.

Shami answers in his fourth over

Shaw and Veer had taken Maharashtra to 18 without loss when Shami produced the two balls of the day, bowling the captain for 12 from 21 and pinning Patil lbw first ball.

Shami ended the day with 2 for 6 from four overs, one of them a maiden, and no other Bengal bowler took a wicket.

Veer was unbeaten on 7 and Bawne on 2 when the umpires took the players off, Maharashtra 21 for 2 from eight overs and still 123 short of a first-innings lead.

Bengal back at their home ground

The match is Bengal's first in the Ranji Trophy at Eden Gardens since late October last year, when they hosted Gujarat, with the T20 World Cup and state functions keeping the side away in the interim and around five home fixtures staged at Kalyani instead, Sangbad Pratidin reported.

Coach Lakshmi Ratan Shukla had put the batters through full net sessions over the weekend after an inconsistent start to the group stage with the bat. The first day did little to settle that question.

Maharashtra arrived without Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Choudhary, both away on the New Zealand tour, and with Shaw short of runs at the top of the order.

What it means in Group C

Bengal came into the round on 18 points from three straight outright wins, the last of them a 287-run defeat of Kerala, and Maharashtra second on 12 from the same three matches.

Three days remain, and on a surface some in the Bengal camp expect to ease for batting, the first-innings lead is the immediate prize.

Scorecard: Bengal 143 (Abishek Porel 54, Pradipta Pramanik 31; Pradeep Dadhe 3-45, Tanay Sanghvi 3-30) lead Maharashtra 21 for 2 (Mohammed Shami 2-6) by 122 runs at stumps on day one

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