Ranji Trophy: Mohammed Shami strikes peg J&K back

KALYANI: He might no longer be in the national team’s scheme of things. He might not be in BCCI’s central contract list. He might be 35 years old. But Mo-hammed Shami remains a potent force.

Shami showed how potent he can be by claiming three wickets to help Ben-gal reduce Jammu and Kashmir to 198 for five at stumps on Day II of the Ranji Trophy semifinal match at the Bengal Cricket Academy (BCA) ground.



Resuming the day at 249/5, Bengal lost five wickets for 79 runs to be bowled out for 328 runs, some 45 minutes before the lunch interval. But J&K suffered early jolts when Shami picked up two wickets to reduce the visitors to 13 for two before the lunch interval. The former India international had openers Shubham Khajuria in his second over and Yawer Hassan in his fourth and final over, both the batters were trapped in front.

Left-hander Shubham Pundir, how-ever, seemed a bit unlucky to be given out after the batter’s edge looked to have kissed the ground. Veteran Paras Dogra and Abdul Samad then arrested the slide.

Samad went on to get his 50 off just 36 balls. Dogra used all his experience to get to his fifty off 95 balls. Finally, Shami broke the 143-run fourth-wicket stand in the fourth delivery as he came back for his second spell. Samad departed for an 85-ball 82. Dogra followed his partner in the first ball of the next over. The J&K skipper got 58 and, in the pro-cess, also completed 10,000 runs in Ranji Trophy. Earlier, Bengal’s Sudip Gharami fell lbw for 146, Auqib Nabi ending up with five for 87.

Brief scores: Bengal Ist innings 328 (S Gharami 146, A Easwaran 49, Auqib Nabi 5/87) vs J&K Ist innings 198/5 (Abdul Samad 82, Paras Dogra 58, Shami 3/60).


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