04 February,2024 07:00 AM IST | Kolkata | Arup Chatterjee
Mumbai pacer Mohit Avasthi after his seven-wicket haul against Bengal at Eden Gardens yesterday
Marauding Mumbai banished last week's shocking defeat to Uttar Pradesh to a mere footnote as they returned to winning ways in Ranji Trophy's Elite Group B in style on Sunday. It's another matter that Bengal, asked to follow-on after being dismissed for 199 on Saturday in reply to the visitors' 412, seemed to have lost all appetite for a fightback.
On an Eden Gardens wicket that had lost venom and eased into an inviting one for batsmen, the hosts folded up for 209 to hand Mumbai victory by an innings and four runs. It all but sealed a berth in the quarter-finals for the 41-time champions.
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Mohit Avasthi, adjudged Man of the Match, snared seven wickets for 52 with his fast-medium stuff to end up with a match haul of 10.
A belligerent Avishek Porel, coming in at four down, hammered 82 off 83 with 15 fours but it was all too evident by then that the hosts had abandoned the patience and purpose needed to take the match deep and keep alive hopes of a salvage operation.
It was all over an hour after the tea break on Day Three of the four-day match, and Bengal may well have kissed goodbye their chances of further progress.
The 31-year-old Avasthi began his demolition job by removing Sourav Paul and Shreyansh Ghosh, the two openers, but his telling blow would come in the last over before lunch. Delivering a steady flow of outgoing stuff, he slipped in one that jagged back to surprise and uproot the middle stump of Anustup Majumdar, who had scored a century in the first innings and was looking the part again.
Porel too was among Avasthi's victims and the pacer could have had the southpaw when he was on 17 had an easy catch been held at deepish gully.
Brief scores
Mumbai 412 beat Bengal 199 & 209 (A Porel 82; M Avasthi 7-52) by an innings and 4 runs
