Nine fielders await at slips as Mohammed Shami blazes away Chattisgarh

Once upon a time, there was an era where bowlers dominated the opposition with their pace, bounce and daunting fields converging at the batsman. For instance, when Australian fast bowling great Dennis Lillie bowled during a match against their Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand at Auckland in 1976-77 with as many as nine slip fielders to their number 11 batsman Peter Petherick.

Many of us wouldn’t quite remember the time when the Australians again terrorized the Zimbabwean batsmen in an ODI at the Harare Sports Club on October 23, 1999. But such instances have been rare as far as recent times are concerned.

However, in a Ranji trophy fixture between Bengal and Chattisgarh held in Raipur, Mohammed Shami and Ashok Dinda managed to bring back time as nine slip fielders surrounded the Chhattisgarh tailenders, Pankaj Kumar Rao and Shahanwaz Hussain, who were fighting hard to save the day for their side.

“The idea was to not allow the batsmen to get away with any of the edges. I didn’t want to leave any gaps in between,” commented the captain of the Bengal team, Manoj Tiwary according to Sportstar. “A bowler gets the psychological advantage if he sees all the nine fielders in the slips,” added Tiwary.

Mohammed Shami and Ashok Dinda picked up two wickets apiece in the first session to end Chhattisgarh’s second innings at 259 and help Bengal win by an innings and 259 runs.

Bengal, thanks to centuries by Sudip Chatterjee and Koushik Ghosh, had amassed 529 in the first innings. Dinda’s seven-wicket haul then reduced Chhattisgarh to 110 in its first innings.

Following on, Abhimanyu Chauhan (115) and Ashutosh Singh’s (71) 172-run stand for the second wicket gave Chhattisgarh hopes of saving the match. But once Shami broke the partnership, the rest of the batters got out for cheap scores.

Scorecard

Bengal 529 for seven decl. in 147.3 overs (Sudip Chatterjee 118, Koushik Ghosh 114; S. A. Singh four for 162) beat Chhattisgarh 110 in 39.5 overs (Ashutosh Singh 53, S. S. Ruikar 22; Ashok Dinda seven for 21) and 259 (following on) in 81.4 overs (Abhimanyu Chauhan 115, Ashutosh Singh 71; Mohammed Shami six for 61)