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| Sourav Ganguly and Ashok Dinda |
Calcutta/Vadodara: Ashok Dinda bolstered his case of being selected, if required, for the tour of Australia as he picked up his third five-wicket haul this season, on the opening day of Bengal’s crucial Ranji Trophy Super League match against Baroda, on Wednesday.
Dinda’s heroics helped the visitors restrict the hosts to 284 for nine at stumps, at the Motibagh ground. While a first innings lead might be enough to take Baroda through to the knockout rounds, Bengal need at least three to beat the drop. Interestingly, a win with bonus point can give them a ticket to the quarter finals.
Dinda took five for 96 from 24 overs, of which four were maiden. This was his 10th five-for in first-class cricket.
What was noteworthy was that all of Dinda’s wickets came with the old ball. His first wicket, that of Aditya Waghmode (62), came as late as the 46th over. Dinda now has 32 wickets in Ranji this season.
With a seaming track on offer, Bengal captain Sourav Ganguly didn’t hesitate to field after winning the toss.
After comeback man Sourav Sarkar bowled his trademark inswinger to get rid of left-handed opener Anupam Gupta, who edged one to Sreevats Goswami behind the stumps, Waghmode and Rakesh Solanki (73, 113 balls, 14x4) added 124 runs for the second wicket to steady the hosts’ innings.
Solanki, too, was Dinda’s victim as the Baroda batsman was caught out by Iresh Saxena.
Ambati Rayudu (20), skipper Pinal Shah (30) and Shatrunjay Gaekwad (9) were out cheaply. Of these three, two — Shah and Gaekwad — were scalped by Dinda. Youngster Veer Pratap Singh dismissed the dangerous looking Rayudu as Baroda, from 145/2 were reduced to 222/6.
But then Irfan Pathan (42) and Swapnil Singh (24) added 56 runs for the seventh wicket to stem the rot. But Swapnil, castled by Dinda, became the speedster’s fourth ‘catch’.
With the ball seaming around a fair bit, Bengal captain Sourav also rolled his arm over and got two wickets in the process with his cutters. First it was Irfan who nicked one to Sreevats and a ball later, he induced an edge off Sankalp Vohra (0).
After the day’s play, Dinda however played down the talk about him getting a chance to show his skill in Australia. “I am not thinking about Australia… I am only concentrating on the job at hand, that is to help Bengal save relegation,” he said.
“My good form is the result of the hard work I have put in the practice sessions… Especially during the off season, I have trained extremely hard,” Dinda added.
Leading the Bengal attack, the pacer denied that it created any extra pressure on him.
“You will always feel pressure if you are playing for Bengal… Being the strike bowler in the side, people always expect more from you. So, I try to give my best effort. The Baroda batsmen were batting well at the start of the day. It was essential for us to make a comeback… I am glad that we did that later in the day,” he said.
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