Ranji Trophy 2017, Delhi vs Bengal: Manan Sharma tightens the screws as Bengal trip over their own feet

Manan Sharma picked two wickets on first day of semi-final against Bengal. (Source: Express Archive Photo)

MANAN SHARMA provided a prudent insight into a modern-day spinner’s mind-set on a flat wicket after close of play on Sunday. He did so with great conviction too. Hinting at the contemporary batsmen’s apparent lack of patience, the Delhi all-rounder insisted that two overs of tightening the screws were often enough to have them hassled and desperate to try a big shot. On the face of it, it seemed a rather facile or even too simplistic a theory. Of course you would expect batsmen to have a slightly better self-restraint.

But you couldn’t possibly have argued with Sharma about it on the first day of the Ranji Trophy semifinal at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune. For, that’s exactly how it panned out at the start of the final session, as he broke the crucial partnership between Manoj Tiwary and Sudip Chatterjee to hand Delhi a major initiative in the early goings of the match. It also summed up Bengal’s disappointing day, one on which they kept forging ahead of their opponents before tripping over their own feet. To the extent that they slipped from a strong position of 200/3 with Chatterjee and Tiwary at the crease to be reduced to 269/7 by stumps on a pitch that looks good for plenty more.

The period of 11 balls within the first 15 minutes after the tea-break epitomized both Bengal’s reluctance to make the most of their good positions and Sharma’s thoughts on the diminishing persistence among batsmen in recent times. Having endured a shaky start against a testing spell of incisive in-swing bowling from Vikas Tokas, the experienced Tiwary had found his rhythm and put on 68 with the well-set Chatterjee. But he’d just been tied down a tad by Sharma’s left-arm spin colleague Vikas Mishra. Mishra, like Sharma, isn’t one to give the ball a significant rip or much air and focuses on being accurate. And Tiwary had struggled to get him away, scoring just 1 run off 10 balls during this spell.

So the first ball he faced from Sharma, the Bengal skipper chose to jump out of the crease in an attempt to play a big shot. It would have probably served him better if he had gone through with a full-blooded strike. Instead, having committed to his aggressive intent, Tiwary ended up producing a weak lofted shot that Himmat Singh easily clutched somewhere near his waist at mid-on. So telegraphed was Tiwary’s charge that Sharma had time to change his line slightly and get the right-hander to stretch that extra bit. Eventually it was a shot that would have ideally earned Tiwary a sounding off from the captain, if only he wasn’t captain himself.

Chatterjee could have gotten away with just a rap on the knuckles for his dismissal. It had been a fluent innings from the left-hander till that point. He had combined well with the other Chatterjee in the line-up, Writtick, and had shown eye-catching skills off both front and back foot. There is a touch of Andrew Hudson in the way he rocks his bat while the bowler is running in. And he played a couple of really delectable swivel pull-shots against the skiddy left-arm pace of Kulwant Khejroliya, where he rode the bounce and made the forceful shot look like a caress, that even the former South African opener would have been proud of.

There were also a few whips off the pads with the wrist taking effect at the last moment. He was also severe on any width, playing the cut shot with contempt for the ball. Ironically it was while attempting one off Sharma that he lost his wicket for a well-made 83. The round-the-wicket angle didn’t help, as the ball ended up closer to him than he’d warranted.

The fact that Mishra had stalled his scoring at that end, also meant there was a little more anxiety to make the short ball count, which meant the ball went in the air allowing substitute Unmukt Chand to pull off a spectacular catch. Mishra too had scalped a wicket earlier in the day playing on Abhishek Raman’s patience, as he unnecessarily hit a harmless delivery straight into the bowler’s hands.

The Delhi spinners weren’t the only ones to push Bengal on the back-foot. Navdeep Saini played his role too. It’s not surprising that the lanky Delhi pacer has been turning heads ever since he broke on to the stage a few years ago.

He’s got a fluid and easy-on-the eye bowling action and he also consistently generates pace in excess of 140 kph. He also kept at the Bengal batsmen throughout the day, pushing them back with his pace, and also getting the ball to jump off a length on occasions. He gave his team first blood by removing the prolific Abhimanyu Eswaran with one that came in sharply and then returned with the second new-ball to clean bowl the dangerous Anustup Majumdar with a delivery that just whizzed past the right-hander’s defence. What stood out with both dismissals was how late the two established batsmen were on the ball.

Khejroliya used the short ball decently throughout the day and even got a fortunate reward towards the end with one as B Amit played a glide straight to thirdman, which was as wasteful as many of the shots played by batsmen before him. That left Bengal with just Shreevats Goswami, the tail and a lot of time to make up for a day filled with wasted opportunities.

Brief Scores: Bengal 273/7 in 87 overs (Sudeep Chatterjee 83, Writtick Chatterjee 47, Manan Sharma 2/37, Navdeep Saini 2/45) vs Delhi.