JOIN USAshok Dinda is living a dream. The East Zone paceman has had a sensational first class season and he took it a step further on Monday with an eight-wicket burst to push North Zone to the brink of defeat at the Feroze Shah Kotla Stadium here on Monday.
Dinda's career-best spell of 8/123 wiped out North for 287 and gave the visitors a narrow but vital first-innings lead of 28. East was looking steady at 120/1 by the close of day's play.
Resuming at 162/3, North slipped from a favourable position to find themselves at the receiving end of an irrepressible Dinda, who added six wickets to his Sunday’s tally of two.
The Bengal bowler, with 52 wickets in the season so far, began in earnest and soon got the breakthrough when overnight batsmen Paras Dogra (43) mistimed a drive to be caught by Natraj Behera at the mid-off. Dogra hit seven boundaries in his 123-ball knock.
Mayank Sidhana (46) and Rajat Bhatia (45) worked their way to string a partnership when Dinda was handed the second new ball. He made optimum use of it, inducing an edge from Sidhana in the third ball of the 81st over. Sidhana's innings came with the help of six fours. Dinda then cut short the stay of Puneet Bisht and skipper Amit Mishra.
Dinda got good support from Basant Mohanty, who bowled a tight line and earned the crucial wicket of Bhatia who was in ominous touch. The experienced Delhi batsman struck five fours and two sixes. Bhatia, however, misread a Mohanty delivery that went through the gate.
Pradeep Sangwan and Parvinder Awana provided a few late fireworks before the former was caught by Dinda in his follow through.
At close, East’s Manish Vardhan was batting on 59 and Anustup Majumdar on 39.
score board
EAST ZONE (I Innings): 315 all out in 104.1 overs
NORTH ZONE (I Innings, O/n: 162/3): Rahul Dewan lbw Mohanty 2, Shikhar Dhawan c Saha b Dinda 40, Mandeep Singh lbw Dinda 55, Mayank Sidhana c Saha b Dinda 46, Paras Dogra c Behera b Dinda 43, Rajat Bhatia b Mohanty 45, Puneet Bisht c Majumdar b Dinda 8, Amit Mishra c Samantray b Dinda 17, Pradeep Sangwan c & b Dinda 19, Harshal Patel c Saha b Dinda 0, Parvinder Awana (not out) 7. Extras (LB-2, W-1, NB-2) 5. Total (all out, 105 overs) 287.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-91, 3-112, 4-174, 5-211, 6-219, 7-259, 8-263, 9-264.
Bowling: Ashoke Dinda 38-3-123-8, Basant Mohanty 36-18-46-2, Abu Nechim Ahmed 14-2-42-0, Biplab Samantray 6-1-24-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 11-1-50-0.
EAST ZONE (II Innings): Manish Vardhan (batting) 59, Natraj Behera c Bisht b Awana 19, Anustup Majumdar (batting) 39. Extras (B-1, LB-1, NB-1) 3. Total (for 1 wkt, 35 overs) 120.
Fall of wicket: 1-45.
Bowling: Parvinder Awana 13-3-39-1, Harshal Patel 6-2-11-0, Pradeep Sangwan 6-0-50-0, Rajat Bhatia 6-0-11-0, Amit Mishra 4-1-7-0.