Bengal qualify for the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy 2025-26
Mohammed Shami starred with the ball in their victory over Services
Uttarakhand and Haryana in battle for the 2nd spot
A dominant Bengal completed a facile innings and 46-run bonus point victory over Services in their Elite Group C match to storm into the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals here Sunday.
Bengal enforced follow-on after bundling out Services for 186 in their first innings after piling up a massive 519 in their first essay.
Having taken a lead of 333 runs, Bengal bowlers once again produced a disciplined performance to skittle out Services for 287, following Mohammed Shami's exploits on the third day when the out-of-favour India seamer wreaked havoc to return excellent figures of 5/51 in 16 overs, giving the national selectors yet another remainder of his prowess in the red-ball format.
Resuming the fourth and final day's play two wickets short of victory, Bengal got the job done in less than half an hour to sit right on top of the points table in Group C.
Bengal have now moved to 30 points, while the race for second place continues between Haryana, Services, and Uttarakhand.
Shami sizzled with the ball in the second innings after Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal and Akash Deep bagged seven wickets between them in Services' first essay. Earlier, Bengal's foundation for the big win was laid by veteran Sudip Chatterjee's maiden double century in his 14th season of first-class cricket.
When Services batted for the second time in the match after Bengal decided to enforce follow-on, skipper Rajat Paliwal put up a brave resistance to top score for his side with a defiant 83 off 160 balls.
Paliwal also stitched a partnership of 119 runs for the fourth wicket with Mohit Ahlawat (62 off 93 balls), and then Jayant Goyat struck an unbeaten run-a-ball 68 batting at number nine to delay the inevitable on the fourth evening.
Brief Scores
In Kalyani: Bengal 1st innings 519 beat Services 186 and 287 all out in 75 overs (Rajat Paliwal 83, Jayant Goyat not out 68, Mohit Ahlawat 62; Mohammed Shami 5/51) innings and 46 runs.
In Nadiad: Gujarat 175 & 347 in 89.4 overs (Jaymeet Patel 101, Urvil Patel 64; Karn Sharma 5/87) lost to Railways 424 and 99/2 in 20.5 overs (Vivek Singh 42, Ravi Singh not out 34; Siddharth Desai 2/34) by 8 wickets.
In Fulung: Assam 247 & 158 all out in 64.3 overs (Mukhtar Hussain 46; Aman Kumar 5/27) lost to Haryana 236 and 175/1 29.3 overs (Ankit Kumar 74, Ashish Siwach 59) by 9 wickets.
In Agartala: Tripura 266 & 258 all out in 90.3 overs (Sentu Sarkar 57, Bikramjit Debnath 48; Mayank Mishra 4/80) lost to Uttarakhand 301 and 224/1 in 65 overs (Bhupen Lalwani not out 100, Kunal Chandela not out 83) by 9 wickets.
