Ranji Trophy: Mohammed Shami's fiery spell, Abhimanyu Easwaran's robust fifty helps Bengal take 67-run lead over Assam on Day 2

Mohammed Shami and Abhimanyu Easwaran were among the star performers as Bengal finished off Day 2 on a 67-run lead oiver Assam. The side are so far unbeaten in the tournament with four victories and a draw in the five games that they have played so far and are now looking in a strong position in their sixth match as well.

After winning the toss and electing to field first, the Bengal bowling attack that is led by Shami and Suraj Jaiswal ended up giving a fine performance and picked up three scalps each. The two were assisted well by pacer Mohammed Kaif, who also chipped in with two big wickets. The trio ensured that the Assam batters failed to form strong partnerships and kept on racking up wickets on regular intervals.

Shami bags important scalps

Shami picked up the two crucial wickets of Swarupan Purkayastha and Assam captain Sumit Ghadigaonkar for scores of 62 and 52 respectively. The two batters played a key role in the team posting a respectable total of 200 runs on the board before being bundled out. Except for them, none of the team's batters were able to impress and lost their wickets rather cheaply. Shami finished the innings with figures of 3/64 while Jaiswal also recorded stellar figures of 3/24.

Bengal batters dominate with stellar display

In reply, Bengal lost opener Sudip Gharami early due to a run-out, but the duo of  Easwaran (66) and Habib Gandhi (58) steadied the side's innings with a 122-run stand. Both the batters slammed half-centuries and countered the Assam bowling attack brilliantly. However, both of them would lose their wickets in short intervals as the hosts got restricted to 151/3 at the Bengal Cricket Academy Ground.

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But, important knocks from Anustup Majumdar (43) and Shahbaz Ahmed (61*) ensured that Bengal finished off Day 2 on a high. While the former lost his wicket, Sumanta Gupta played an unbeaten cameo of 25 as the hosts wrapped up the day on 267/4, 67 runs ahead of Assam. It remains to be seen if Bengal's batters will continue to impress, taking their team to a strong lead over their opponents.