Mohammed Shami’s five-wicket burst put Bengal firmly on course for an outright win with a bonus point against Services on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Group C match in Kalyani on Saturday. Shami tore through the Services batting line-up with a superb spell of 16-3-51-5 as the visitors stumbled to 231/8 after being made to follow on, still needing 102 more runs to make Bengal bat again. Shami provided early breakthroughs by removing opener Shubham Rohilla for a duck and No. 3 Ravi Chauhan for eight, before returning to dismiss Rajat Paliwal for 83, Vineet Dhankar for 13, and Arjun Sharma for two. The 35-year-old backed up the fifer after claiming two wickets in the first innings, helping the hosts bowl Services out for 186. Brief Scores: Bengal 519 vs Services 186 & 231/8 in 61 overs (Paliwal 83; Shami 5/51, Mukesh 2/42), lead by 102 runs. Mumbai moved closer to an outright win with a bonus point against Hyderabad on the third day of their Group D clash. Himanshu Singh impressed with figures of 3/39, while Tushar Deshpande (2/68) and Mohit Awasthi (2/54) chipped in as Hyderabad were earlier bowled out for 267. After enforcing the follow-on, Mumbai reduced Hyderabad to 166/7, with Mohit Awasthi taking 3/31. Brief Scores: Mumbai 560 vs Hyderabad 267 & 166/7 in 39.3 overs (Himateja 43; Awasthi 3/31), trail by 127 runs. Group A In Bhubaneswar: Tamil Nadu 286 & 316 all out in 88.2 overs (Athish 88, Yadav 74; Biswal 3/56) vs Odisha 148 and 47/2 in 15.3 overs. Odisha needs 408 more runs to win. In Lucknow: Jharkhand 561/6 decl. vs Uttar Pradesh 176 in 56.2 overs (Goswami 85; Shubham Singh 4/47) & 69/7 in 23 overs, trail by 316 runs.Story continues below this ad In Vizianagaram: Vidarbha 295 & 191 in 55.2 overs (Rathod 56; Saiteja 4/28) vs Andhra 228 all out & 93/1 in 26 overs. Andhra needs 166 more runs to win. Group B In Mangalapuram: Kerala 139 & 185 all out in 48 overs (Vinod 56; Dhanda 4/38) lost to Chandigarh 416 by an innings and 92 runs. In Alur: Madhya Pradesh 323 & 204/6 in 71 overs (Mantri 89 not out; Patil 3/39) vs Karnataka 191 all out. Group C In Agartala: Tripura 266 all out & 247/8 in 84 overs (Sarkar 50 not out, Debnath 48; Mishrah 4/79) vs Uttarakhand 301 all out in 88.2 overs, lead by 212 runs.Story continues below this ad In Guwahati: Assam 247 all out & 136/7 in 53 overs (Hussain 40 not out, Das 35 not out; Aman 3/12) vs Haryana 236 all out in 71.3 overs, lead by 147 runs. In Nadiad: Gujarat 175 & 347 in 89.4 overs (Jaymeet Patel 101, Urvil Patel 64; Karn Sharma 5/87) vs Railways 424, lead by 98 runs. Group D In Jaipur: Himachal Pradesh 406 & 38/0 in 10 overs vs Rajasthan 342 in 131.2 overs (Suthar 120; Dhaliwal 5/101, Negi 4/108), lead by 102 runs. In Bengaluru: Delhi 216 & 158/3 in 30 overs (Arya 82; Agrawal 1/25) vs Chhattisgarh 505 in 102 overs (Pandey 183, Tiwary 108; Mathur 3/94), trail by 131 runs.
Mohammed Shami’s 5/51 puts Bengal on course for outright win against Services; Mumbai in dominant position against Hyderabad
