Renaissance man
Kolkata: Out-of-favour India pacer Mohammed Shami grabbed three wickets in four balls in the fag end of the day to help Bengal bundle out Uttarakhand for 213 on the opening day of their Ranji Trophy Elite Group C fixture, here Wednesday.
In reply, Bengal made a jittery start as captain and India Test hopeful Abhimanyu Easwaran was dismissed in the first ball.
The hosts ended the day at 8/1 in five overs, with Sudip Chatterjee (1 batting) and Sudip Kumar Gharami (7 batting) seeing through some anxious moments.
Bengal trail Uttarakhand by 205 runs going into the second day.
Having made his comeback in the Duleep Trophy earlier this season, Shami continued his search for rhythm and consistency after a lean phase marked by injuries and poor form. The 35-year-old veteran toiled most of the day, bowling 14 overs without reward, looking a shadow of his fiery past.
The leading wicket-taker of the 2023 World Cup struggled for rhythm and sting through his first four spells, before producing a late burst of old magic of reverse swing.
Skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran’s move to bring Shami back for a fifth spell proved decisive as Uttarakhand lower-order eighth wicket partnership started counter-attacking to take the team past 200.
The veteran seamer found some reverse swing under fading sunlight and cleaned up the tail in dramatic fashion.
Padikkal, Karun shine
Rajkot: Solid fifties by Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair and R Smaran helped Karnataka reach 295/5 amid regular strikes by Saurashtra on Day 1 of their Elite Group B match.
Padikkal (96 off 141 balls), Nair (73 off 126) added 146 runs for the third wicket after left-arm spinner Dharmendra Jadeja (4/100) dismissed opener Nikin Jose
and skipper Mayank Agarwal early in the innings. Smaran was batting on 66 at stumps along with veteran Shreyas Gopal.
Ishan Kishan strikes ton
Coimbatore: Jharkhand captain Ishan Kishan lifted his team from a tricky situation with a statement hundred as the visitors reached 307 for six against hosts Tamil Nadu.
Kishan, who has lost his place in the Indian team across formats, was batting on an unbeaten 125 off 183 alongside Sahil Raj (64 batting) at close of play.
Jharkhand were in real danger of being bowled for a sub-200 first-innings total but Kishan and Raj shared an unbroken 150-run stand for the seventh wicket. Tamil Nadu left-arm pacer Gurjapneet Singh got the early breakthrough for his team before finishing with three wickets on the day.
