Calcutta/Bilaspur: Senior pro Ashok Dinda and debutant Amit Kuila grabbed five wickets each before captain Manoj Tiwary struck an unbeaten 61 as Bengal consolidated their position against Punjab with a 315-run lead in a Ranji Trophy Group A league encounter, here on Saturday.
It was a special day for Dinda, whose 5/58 took him to 320 first-class wickets - surpassing Ranadeb Bose's 317. Among pacers, Shute Banerjee has 385 wickets from 138 matches but he has played a most of his first-class matches for Bihar, Nawanagar, MP, Jharkhand and Hindus.
Only left-arm spinners Utpal Chatterjee (504 wickets) and Bengal legend Dilip Doshi (898 wickets) have more first-class wickets than Dinda. Doshi's wickets also comprise his 100-plus Test victims, his wickets for Saurashtra and a bagful in County cricket for Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.
At stumps on third day, Bengal were 182 for five in their second innings after bowling out Punjab for 271 in the first innings. Having scored 404 in their first innings, Bengal enjoyed a handy first-innings lead of 133.
"It always feels nice to contribute for Bengal. I love performing for Bengal," Dinda said later.
"It gives me extra motivation now, but this joy will last only if we can finish this game as well as the competition on a very good note. For me, I don't think anything else can parallel a Ranji Trophy triumph.
"So, instead of getting carried away, I'm just focused on my job ahead," Dinda added.
Starting the day at 168 for four, seasoned Uday Kaul (77) only added a boundary to his overnight score before young Kuila (5/76) got him caught by skipper Tiwary. Taruwar Kohli (26) was trapped leg-before by Dinda before Kuila got rid of Vinay Choudhary to complete a five-wicket haul in his first-class debut.
The last three wickets were taken by Dinda to complete his 18th five-wicket haul in his 90th first-class appearance.
With a handy lead, none of the Bengal batsmen save Tiwary, who hit seven fours and a six, could stay at the wicket. The skipper added 46 runs for the unbroken sixth wicket stand with Shreevats Goswami (23).
