Pace bowling on a dry, brown sub-continental surface is a lot about heart, skill and that precious ability to adapt.
M. Mohammed displayed all these qualities for Tamil Nadu, scalping four Bengal wickets, on an eventful second day of their Ranji Trophy duel at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday.
Mohammed rocked Bengal with an opening burst of 4-2-2-3 and came back to reverse swing the ball.
Left-arm spinner Rahil Shah, accurate, spinning the ball away and varying his pace, played a key role too with a five-wicket haul.
Replying to Tamil Nadu’s first innings 263 — B. Aparajith made 103 (273b, 8x4, 1x6) while seamer Ishan Porel took five wickets — Bengal was dismissed for 189.
Then, amidst fading light, experienced Bengal seamer Ashoke Dinda breached left-handed Abhinav Mukund’s defence from round the wicket.
Resolute
For the visitor, left-handed opener Abhishek Raman batted with technique and resolve for a fighting 98 (173b, 10x4, 1x6) even as wickets fell around him.
Abhishek, the ninth batsman to be dismissed, fell agonising close to a hundred, brilliantly held by J. Kousik, running to his right from long-off, off Rahil.
Earlier, Mohammed made serious inroads. Importantly, the seamer got his tactics right on a surface of inconsistent bounce. He pitched the ball up, got the batsmen to drive, and had a cover and mid-wicket, both short, in place for the miscued stroke.
Big fish
Bowling with control, Mohammed had the big fish, Manoj Tiwari, held at short mid-wicket. The ball seemed to stop a tad on the batsman.
Among Mohammad’s other victims were opener Koushik Ghosh, picked up at cover, left-handed Sudip Chatterjee, edging a delivery angled across to be brilliantly held by B. Indrajith at first slip, and Shreevats Goswami, caught and bowled; Mohammed went round the wicket and extracted a fatal drive from the southpaw.
And Rahil contained and struck, operating to the field and chipping away at the batsmen. The pace-spin combination of Mohammed and Rahil worked for Tamil Nadu.
The scores: Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: Kaushik Gandhi lbw b Porel 51, Abhinav Mukund c Ghosh b Porel 9, B. Aparajith c Tiwari b Pramanik 103, B. Indrajith b Pramanik 0, N. Jagadeesan c Chatterjee b Pramanik 39, B. Anirudh lbw b Gani 7, J. Kousik lbw b Porel 1, R. Sai Kishore c Tiwari b Gani 9, M. Mohammed c Goswami b Porel 24, Rahil Shah c Gowsami b Porel 8, T. Natarajan (not out) 4; Extras (lb-4, b-1, nb-3): 8; Total (in 106 overs): 263.
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-94, 3-95, 4-155, 5-167, 6-170, 7-186, 8-250, 9-251.
Bengal bowling: Dinda 18-7-28-0, Gani 23-2-66-2, Porel 27-12-48-5, Pramanik 27-6-82-3, Chatterjee 7-2-11-0, Majumdar 4-0-23-0.
Bengal — 1st inning: Abhishek Raman c Kousik b Rahil 98, Koushik Ghosh c Anirudh b Mohammed 2, Sudip Chatterjee c Indrajith b Mohammed 0, Manoj Tiwari c Abhinav b Mohammed 1, Anustup Majumdar c Indrajith b Rahil 16, Writtick Chatterjee c Aparajith b Rahil 11, Shreevats Goswami c & b Mohammed 19, Aamir Gani c & b Sai Kishore 13, Pradipta Pramanik b Rahil 11, Ashoke Dinda b Rahil 1, Ishan Porel (not out) 0; Extras (b-3, lb-4, nb-5, w-5): 17; Total (in 63.5 overs): 189.
Fall of wicket: 1-6, 2-8, 3-11, 4-38, 5-70, 6-119, 7-142, 8-178, 9-189.
Tamil Nadu bowling: Natarajan 14-2-26-0, Mohammed 14-5-39-4, Rahil 18.5-5-46-5, Sai Kishore 14-0-59-1, Aparajith 3-0-12-0.
Tamil Nadu — 2nd innings: Kaushik Gandhi (batting) 1, Abhinav Mukund b Dinda 2, Sai Kishore (batting) 1; Extras (lb-8): 8; Total (for one wicket in three overs): 12.
Fall of wicket: 1-7.
Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda 2-1-4-1, Aamir Gani 1-1-0-0.
