Punjab coach Munish Bali (left) and captain Mandeep Singh will be looking for an outright win against Bengal. (Express file)
Bengal hold the edge going into their final group league match against Punjab in Patiala starting on Wednesday. They are on 26 points and a win or a draw with a first-innings lead will take them into the knockouts. And even if they concede the lead, Bengal will still have a superior quotient than their rivals.
Punjab, on 24 points, must win outright to reach the quarterfinals, for a first-innings lead doesn’t itself guarantee them a place in the quarterfinals. Other results will have to go in their favour in that case.
To eliminate the chance factor, the hosts have laid out a rank-turner, a pitch that Bengal head coach Arun Lal described as “substandard”.
This has been Punjab’s preferred template for home matches at the back-end of the group league stage. In the previous game also, they did the same and routed Andhra inside two days. A total of 36 wickets fell in that game, spinners accounting for 31 of them.
The next big thing 🦁
Anmol Malhotra #punjabteam pic.twitter.com/7j1V9ie4jo— Mandeep Singh (@mandeeps12) February 6, 2020
As reported by this paper, after the match, the BCCI had asked for an explanation from its neutral curator Ishtyaque Khan. Wednesday’s game will be played on a different surface and the BCCI has changed the neutral curator, replacing Khan with Sunil Chauhan. But the Bengal coach is far from convinced.
“I don’t think there’s much difference in the wicket. To me, it’s still not suitable to play a Ranji Trophy match. It appears to be totally in favour of one aspect, which is spin. It’s not suitable for first-class cricket. In first-class cricket, you want the medium pacers to bowl and spinners to come in contention on the third and fourth day,” Lal told The Indian Express.
The pitch looks dry and Lal has doubts with regards to proper rolling of the surface. According to him, a pitch very lopsided in favour of the spinners narrows the gap between the two sides.
“I think we have a much better team. But when you come and play on a track which is substandard, then the gulf between the two teams narrows down. That’s where we do not benefit. Then it’s a little bit of lottery. But if you play on a good track, then the better team and skills prevail. You have to play good cricket over four days. But if a match ends in two days, the whole thing just turns around. We prefer to play on a good wicket but even then we are prepared.”
Steely Bengal
During his playing days, Lal was regarded as the ultimate fighter in domestic cricket. Little wonder then that Bengal have shown steel under his charge. The last match against Rajasthan in Jaipur was a case in point, where Bengal had conceded a 118-run first innings lead but bounced back to win the match, chasing 320 in the fourth innings. Bengal teams of earlier vintage would have thrown in the towel, but the current lot embraced the pressure and refused to be defeated.
Weather played spoilsport in three home matches at the Eden Gardens. That Bengal still have one foot in the knockouts speaks volumes for their improvement this season. When Lal became the team mentor last term, he had found a fractured dressing room. The team’s collective fitness level had been average. After becoming head coach, he changed the team culture.
Bengal also thrived on team effort. Abhishek Raman started off with back-to-back hundreds, Manoj Tiwary scored his maiden triple century in first-class cricket during the season, the experienced Anustup Majumdar stood up to be counted in the middle order when his team needed him, rookie fast bowler Akash Deep made rapid strides, and young all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed shone bright both with the bat and ball.
The left-arm spinner bagged his maiden hat-trick in first-class cricket against Hyderabad. Against Rajasthan in the last game, his unbeaten half-century in the second innings eventually proved to be the difference between the two teams.
Last season, a cloud hung over Ahmed’s career when he found himself at the receiving end of maidan politics. Complaints had been lodged against his proof of residence – Ahmed is originally a Haryana boy – as he played club cricket in Kolkata. Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Avishek Dalmiya’s intervention – he was the state association joint-secretary then – came to the youngster’s rescue. A season down the line, Ahmed is almost undroppable from the Bengal squad. Also, he has a Rs 20 lakh IPL contract with Royal Challengers Bangalore.
As for Punjab, they will unleash their spinners and will go for an outright win. The toss is going to be very important. Then again, over the next few days, the Patiala pitch is likely to attract the biggest attention.