Shahbaz Ahmed’s unbeaten century stole the limelight from Mohammed Shami’s a lot anticipated white-ball return, main Bengal to a four-wicket win towards defending champion Punjab in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy’s first spherical of the group ‘A’ fixture at Niranjan Shah Stadium right here on Saturday.
Shahbaz had the sparse crowd on its ft as he smacked a counter-attacking 100 off 49 balls to finish the 180-run chase after Punjab had Bengal struggling at 10/4 inside 4 overs.
The left-hander attacked Abhishek Sharma (three for 37) early, earlier than taking Gurnoor Brar to the cleaners. Shahbaz added 110 runs for the fifth wicket with captain Sudip Gharami, who scored 43 off 31 balls.
Punjab hoped to show the tide after Mayank Markande received Gharami out within the 14th over, however Shahbaz continued to seek out boundaries at will and helped Bengal end the sport with an over to spare.
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Earlier, Punjab started its title defence with a six off the primary ball – Abhishek got here down the observe and hit Shami over covers. He then picked Shami’s size ball for one more most in the identical over.
Abhishek’s fast 18 off 8 ended as he chipped Kanishk Seth’s size ball straight to covers. However Punjab continued to muscle the ball within the PowerPlay with Prabhsimran Singh and Anmolpreet Singh on the crease. Shahbaz gave a much-needed breakthrough as he had Prabhsimran caught at long-on within the seventh over, ending a 57-run alliance.
Though Anmolpreet did proceed to hit some highly effective photographs, Bengal spinners regularly managed the scoring fee. And it was Anmolpreet’s run out within the eleventh over that triggered Punjab’s collapse.
Pradipta Pramanik received Naman Dhir out, Writtick Chatterjee eliminated Sanvir Singh and Mayank Markande, and Karan Lal claimed three together with the wicket of Ramandeep Singh.
Nehal Wadhera (28 off 26) threatened to take Punjab previous the 200-run mark however Shami had him caught within the deep. Arshdeep although slammed two sixes as Punjab completed on 179, which wasn’t sufficient.
End result
Punjab 179 all out in 19.4 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 35, Anmolpreet Singh 39, Karan Lal 3/23) misplaced to Bengal 181/6 in 19 overs (Shahbaz Ahmed 100 n.o., Sudip Gharami 43, Abhishek Sharma 3/37)