Kolkata: India pacer Mohammed Shami battled dehydration to return with a five-star performance in the first ever pink ball match in India at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Shami took 5/42 to help his club Mohun Bagan set firm footing in the Super League final against Bhowanipore. The speedster was taken off the field after suffering from dehydration only to come back later on day 2 of the match, to put up a scintillating performance with the pink ball.
Shami looked unplayable with his pace and bounce that rattled the inexperienced Bhowanipore batting line up who recovered from 45 for seven to 153 all out (including 20 penalty) in 38.5 overs in reply to Mohun Bagan’s first-innings total of 299 runs. Bagan in their second innings are 150/4 at stumps on Day 2 , which means they have already taken a lead of 296 runs. Arndam Ghosh is batting on 49* along with Anustup Majumder on 20*.
Bhowanipore never looked in control right from the start of their innings losing wickets at regular intervals. They were reduced to 45/7 inside the first 18 overs with Abhishek Das, Parthasarathy Bhattacharya and Writtick Chatterjee all being dismissed without scoring.
Shami gave the first breakthrough getting rid of Santosh Sabanayakan caught by Wriddhiman behind the wicket. But soon looked uneasy and his teammates helped him with a towel as he went off the field with Sourav Mondal completing the over.
Sanjib Sanyal soon picked up the wicket of Abhishek Das, getting him caught and bowled for a duck. Bhawanipore was 7/2 after 2 overs. In form batsman Parthasarathy Bhattacharya and Captain Writtick Chatterjee, both went for ducks as they were snapped up by veteran Sanjib Sanyal. Sourav Mondal too got into the act by getting rid of Ayan Bhattacharya caught by Vivek Singh for 14 runs.
Eyeing the West Indies tour next month, Shami returned to action in the 14th over and bowled six overs in tandem. The India pacer took the wicket of Subham Chatterjee , getting him bowled. Mondal gave Mohun Bagan yet another breakthrough by picking Arnab Ghosh caught by Joyjit Basu for 7 runs. Bhawanipore could manage 83 runs in the first session.
Uddipan Mukherjee and Sujit Yadav then stitched a partnership of 60 runs for the 8th wicket, before Yadav (32) was caught by Anustup of Mondal. Uddipan, who played a valiant knock of 41 runs, was caught by Vivek Singh of the bowling of Shami. Last man to be dismissed was Geet Puri, who was bowled by Shami, making him the first Indian bowler to take five wickets with the pink ball.
A visibly satisfied looking Shami later said, “It’s very bright and glows like a radium. With red or white balls, there was some visibility problem as it took the colour of grass. Definitely I will prefer this ball, this is much better. The biggest plus point is (the swing) under lights, what else a bowler wants.”
Shami, who made a great Test debut at this venue with a career best nine-wicket haul against the West Indies in 2013 feels there was more movement with the pink ball under the lights.
“There was a bit of moisture in the afternoon so it helped initially. But under lights, there was more movement undoubtedly. It’s challenging for both batsmen and bowlers.”
There were some concerns with reverse swing as the bowlers on the first day complained that both the sides of the ball remained shiny, but Shami disagreed.
“The ball retains it colour and shine. If we can maintain the dryness, I’m sure it will reverse. It did, I noticed.”
India stumper Wriddhiman Saha showered praise on the pink ball experiment.
“Every ball is swinging a bit either way which was never the case with the red kookaburra. The visibility is perfect. Red or white, the ball invariably lost its colour after it became old. But here there’s no such difficulty at all. The pink ball has better visibility. But batsmen will have problem if a pacer consistently bowls 140kmph,” feels Saha.
The Sunday turnout was close to 5000 and spectators were seen waving and shouting ‘pink ball, pink ball’ in front of the camera.