Railways pace duo of Anureet Singh and Krishna Kant Upadhyay took 35 balls to dismiss the remaining three Bengal batsmen as the home team got three important points by virtue of their first innings lead of 36 runs in a Ranji Trophy Group B encounter here today.
Railways are very much in the hunt with 20 points from five games, while Bengal's chances of making it to last eight is slowly evaporating with only 12 from five games.
Needing 55 runs to overtake Railways' first innings score of 306, Bengal could add only 18 runs to their overnight score as they were bowled out for 270 in 133.5 overs with skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla remaining stranded on a well-made 95 (143b, 9x4, 2x6).
It was a matter of one wicket as Railways needed to get rid of the gritty Iresh Saxena, who batted for nearly two hours playing 84 balls for his six. His luck finally ran out when Anureet (5/97) completed his five-for with a ball that came in and the Bengal batsman was trapped leg before.
There was a strategic mistake from Shukla, who was exposing Saxena to the pacers on a early morning track by playing the single within the first two balls and there was always a danger of a tail-ender being found wanting.
There was no love lost between new man Ashoke Dinda and the Railways players with skipper Murali Kartik standing near the striker's end to welcome the Bengal speedster.
Kartik must have been saying something uncharitable to Dinda on the pretext of setting the field as umpire Milind Pathak had to intervene and tell Kartik to get back to his place. A few balls later, Dinda pulled Anureet to boundary and waved his bat in 'Sreesanth fashion' (Durban 2006 after hitting Andre Nel).
After a few airy shots, Dinda was destined to play a mistimed pull-shot which was gleefully accepted by the bowler Krishna Kant Upadhyay (3/78).
The very next delivery saw Shib Shankar Paul walk down the pitch like Robin Uthappa, only to play a faulty forward defensive stroke that saw his stumps cartwheeling and Upadhyay made an ugly gesture of a kick, which saw the umpire talking to the pacer.
