Mohammed Shami in action for Bengal.© Twitter
Mohammed Shami scored 15 runs in his sixth consecutive SMAT T20 match while surprise Karan Lal smoked 94 off just 47 balls as Bengal hammered Bihar by nine wickets in a Group A match in Rajkot. Bihar, without their teenage prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi, scored 147 for 6 in 20 overs with Sayan Ghosh (2/32) is the bowlers’ choice. Bengal broke away from the chase in just 14 overs with Lal smashing nine fours and six sixes.
However, all eyes were on Shami, who again showed economy with figures of 1/18 in 4 overs after 0/16 in 4 against Meghalaya. Shami has so far played six T20 games in 11 days and bowled 23.3 overs from the maximum 24 overs. He has five wickets so far, three of which came against Hyderabad.
It is unclear whether Shami will be called up for the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Brief assessments: Bihar 147/6 in 20 overs (Sayan Ghosh 2/32, Mohammed Shami 1/18). Bengal 150/1 (Karan Lal 94 not out, Sudeep Kr Gharami 32 not out). Bengal won by 9 wickets.
Earlier on Sunday, India’s star spinner Mohammed Shami ensured a comfortable win for Bengal over Meghalaya with a miserable spell in their Group A competition in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy. Elsewhere Naman Dhir returned excellent figures of 5/19 to give Punjab a narrow seven-run win over Hyderabad in Group A, while Jharkhand recorded a thrilling one-wicket win over Haryana in which Harshal Patel (2/16) and Yuzvendra Chahal (1/13) was brilliant with the ball.
Shami continued to take giant strides on his comeback road with a blistering 4-0-16-0 that helped Bengal restrict Meghalaya to a modest 127 for six.
Bengal won by six wickets with 49 balls to spare at the Niranjan Shah Stadium.
Arien Sangma (37) and Larry Sangma (38) staged a recovery for Meghalaya with the bat.
In response, Bengal faltered as three of their batters were out but Abhishek Porel’s 31-ball 61, with nine fours and two sixes coupled with Rittik Chatterjee25 did not come out, they missed the target.
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