Indian pacer Mohammed Shami shined on his first-class cricket return as Bengal secured a crucial victory against Madhya Pradesh to climb in the points table. The thrilling match ended with Shami’s success.

After picking four wickets during Madhya Pradesh’s first innings, Mohammed Shami took three wickets in the fourth innings. 

Chasing the 338-run target in the fourth innings, Madhya Pradesh started the fourth day at 150/3.

Mohammed Shami started the fourth day with a wicket

While Shami took one wicket last day by dismissing Anubhav Agarwal (2), he started the final day of the match with a wicket. On the third ball of the day, Shami bowled Rajat Patidar for 32 runs. 

Soon, Shami’s brother Mohammed Kaif took the wicket of Harpreet Singh (7). 

Middle-orders and lower-middle orders frustrated Bengal

Struggling at 161/5, Madhya Pradesh returned to the game with the sixth wicket partnership between the skipper Shubham Sharma (61) and Venkatesh Iyer (53). While both scored half-centuries, they had a partnership of 94 runs.   

However, Madhya Pradesh were under pressure once again after the dismissals of captain Sharma and Iyer in two consecutive overs without adding any runs. 

Aryan Pandey and Saransh Jain frustrated the visitors Bengal as they had a 62-run partnership for the seventh wicket. While Madhya Pradesh were 21 runs away from victory with three wickets in hand, Shahbaz Ahmed and Shami destroyed the hosts' hope by sharing the last three wickets.

Shahbaz dismissed the set batters and Shami took the match-winning wicket

While Shahbaz dismissed both Pandey (22) and Jain (32), Shami took the last wicket by taking the wicket of Kumar Kartikeya (6) as Bengal won by 11 runs. With this win, Bengal climbed the Elite Group C points table with 14 points after five matches. 

Shami also had valuable contribution with the bat

Shami not only took seven wickets, but he also scored quickfire 37 runs off 36 balls with the help of two fours and two sixes in Bengal’s second innings, which proved valuable for the visitors. Before he was stumped out, he had a 29-run last-wicket partnership with his brother Mohammed Kaif.

It is great news for Indian cricket fans as Shami has proved his fitness. While the beginning of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 is less than a week away, we can see fit Shami in the crucial away Test series.