A high portion of red soil blended with the local black cotton soil has radically changed the texture of the pitch at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium. From what was two years ago a rank turner, the pitch has become a conventional four-day wicket where seamers gain a lot of purchase on day one of a First Class match.
On Tuesday, Mumbai fast bowler Shardul Thakur, given the first use of a surface that aided speed and lift, caused the downfall of six batsmen and skittled out Bengal for 99 in a little under three hours in the first innings of their Ranji Trophy Group A league match.
Thakur was ably supported by Dhawal Kulkarni, who hastened Bengal’s collapse in the post lunch session with the last three wickets. Precariously placed at 96 for five at the long interval, Bengal lost five wickets for the addition of three runs in 24 minutes.
Mumbai then conceded some ground as the Bengal seamers — Ashoke Dinda, Amit Kuila and Mukesh Kumar — sent down excellent spells. As the shadows lengthened, Mumbai skipper Aditya Tare would have looked at his team’s score of 164 for five and wondered if his teammates could have played more carefully. Tare has already spent close to an hour in the middle.
The league has run through almost three-fourths of its course and the onus was on Bengal — lying fifth in this nine-team group — to do a lot of catching up. It’s task was cut out against a team that has competed well right through the tournament and was musing on the success of a handful of newcomers.
In another context, Tare and coach Chandrakant Pandit wished that their spearhead for the last three years — Thakur — had had a successful run in the previous five matches; he had gone wicketless in the match against Gujarat at Hubballi.
But on Tuesday Thakur did not let down his captain Tare, who chose to field at the sight of an encouraging surface. Tare — in a bid to maximise the use of the pitch — also went in for a third seamer in Tushar Deshpande who came in for left-arm spinner Aditya Dhumal.
Later the Mumbai openers Jay Bista and Kaustubh Pawar gave a flying start rattling off 52 in the first eight overs, before Dinda, Mukesh and Kuila bowled to a one-side field and controlled proceedings.
The scores:
Bengal — 1st innings: Abhishek Raman c Bista b Thakur 21, Abhimanyu Eswaran c Shreyas b Thakur 2, Sayan Shekhar Mandal lbw b Nayar 13, Sudip Chatterjee c Ranjane b Thakur 35, Manoj Tiwary c Tare b Thakur 11, Agniv Pan b Thakur 0, Shreevats Goswami c Bista b Thakur 1, Ashoke Dinda b Kulkarni 2, Pragyan Ojha c Tare b Kulkarni 0, Amit Kuila (not out) 0, Mukesh Kumar c Tare b Kulkarni 0; Extras (b-2, lb-9, nb-3): 14; Total (in 35.3 overs): 99.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-33, 3-55, 4-90, 5-94, 6-96, 7-99, 8-99, 9-99.
Mumbai bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 10.3-3-22-3, Shardul Thakur 13-4-31-6, Tushar Deshpande 5-0-22-0, Vishal Dabholkar 2-1-3-0, Nayar 5-2-10-1.
Mumbai — 1st innings: Jay Bista c Goswami b Kuila 26, Kaustubh Pawar c Goswami b Mukesh 78, Shreyas Iyer c Ojha b Dinda 28, Suryakumar Yadav lbw b Mukesh 8, Aditya Tare (batting) 13, Abhishek Nayar lbw b Kuila 5, Dhawal Kulkarni (batting) 2; Extras (lb-1, nb-1, w-2): 4; Total (for five wkts. in 42 overs): 164.
Fall of wickets: 1-58, 2-119, 3-144, 4-147, 5-162.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 13-4-50-1, Mukesh Kumar 10-0-44-2, Amit Kuila 11-2-44-2, Sayan Shekhar Mandal 1-0-5-0, Pragyan Ojha 7-0-20-0.
