Zaheer rips through Bengal batting, Mumbai in control in Ranji final

Mumbai, Feb 3 (UNI) Zaheer Khan produced a devastating spell of fast bowling and ripped through the Bengal batting lineup to dimiss the visitors for a paltry 143 runs in their first innings to put Mumbai in complete control on the second day of the five-day Ranji Trophy Super League final at the Wankhede stadium here today.

By close of the second day's play, Mumbai had progressed to 113 for two in their reply giving them an overall lead of 290 with Wasim Jaffer batting on 50 and Wilkin Mota on 0 at the crease.

Resuming at 281 for five this morning, Mumbai folded up for 320 in just 15.4 overs with Ranadeb Bose claiming 4-77.

Bengal after restricting Mumbai to inside 320, began their second innings on a disastrous note when Ajit Agrakar dimissed their captain Deep Dasgupta, caught at gully by Rohit Sharma for a duck.

Zaheer Khan then took over and began his demolition job, getting rid of Abhishek Jhunjhunwala for two in his first over and the innings second when the ball moved away from the batsman after pitching. Jhunjhunwala, playing away from his body, got an edge which was taken by wicketkeeper Vinayak Samant with Bengal on three runs for two wickets.

Zaheer got Arindam Das in similar fashion for seven as Bengal were tottering at 28 for three. Arindam was earlier dropped by wicketkeeper Samant off Zaheer when Bengal was on 18-2.

Zaheer then got the biggest wicket when he beat Sourav Ganguly facing this first ball, all ends up for speed as the southpaw could not get his bat down in time before his middle stump was uprooted from the ground as Bengal fell further into trouble at 28 for four.

This was the third successive time in domestic matches that Zaheer Khan had got the better of Sourav Ganguly, dimissing him all three times for a duck.

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