Mohammed Shami (4/13) and Akash Deep (3/27) starred with the ball, while Abishek Porel and Abhimanyu Easwaran hit fluent half-centuries as Bengal brushed Services aside by seven wickets in their Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy clash in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Opting to bowl first after winning the toss at the Gymkhana Ground, Services, after a top-order collapse, stretched their total to 165 in 18.2 overs, courtesy contributions from captain Mohit Ahlawat (38), Vineet Dhankhar (32) and Nakul Sharma (32).
For Bengal, the start wasn’t ideal as they lost Porel’s opening partner Karan Lal off the first ball he faced. Scoring his maiden hundred in the last game, Karan couldn’t
even open his account on this occasion.
However, his early dismissal made little difference for Bengal as Porel (56 off 29 balls) and skipper Easwaran (58 off 37 balls) hammered 93 in their second-wicket stand, taking Bengal’s scoring rate to well over 10 runs an over. Porel departed with the team total at 107 and the equation less than six an over.
Easwaran too didn’t last long thereafter, but Yuvraj Keswani (36 not out off 19 balls) and Akash (14 not out off five balls), again promoted up the order, helped Bengal to the target with as many as 29 balls to spare.
With this clinical win, Bengal are back to the top of group C with 16 points from
five games.
Bengal still have two more matches to play in the group phase against Pondicherry and Haryana, and they need to win both to assure their berth in the knockout round, head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla emphasised.
“We have to win both these matches so that not an iota of doubt exists regarding our qualification. There’s absolutely no room for relaxation,” Shukla said.
A fair amount of credit for the victory has to go to Shami, though. Striking on the
very first ball of the game with the wicket of Gaurav Kochar, Shami was disciplined
right through his 3.2 overs of bowling and made scoring really difficult for the opposition batters.
Shami was certainly well complemented by Akash, who struck inside the Powerplay and also at the death, taking two of his three wickets in the 16-20-over period. With Mukesh Kumar (0/53 in three overs) — sharing the new ball with Shami —
being expensive, it was imperative for Akash to be amongst wickets and take the pressure off Shami.
For Shami, it was also about proving that he remains effective despite not being in the reckoning for Team India at present. One may claim he is not as sharp as he used to be a couple of years ago, but when it comes to taking wickets, the 35-year-old isn’t doing a bad job at all. His performance on Thursday was another statement.
Brief scores: Services 165 in 18.2 ovs (Mohit Ahlawat 38; Mohammed Shami 4/13, Akash Deep 3/27). Bengal 167/3 in 15.1 ovs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 58, Abishek Porel 56; Mohit Rathee 2/38). Bengal won by 7 wickets.