NEW DELHI: Senior India speedster Mohammed Shami was at his brutal best, but with the bat, as he smashed a stunning unbeaten 17-ball 32 for Bengal in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali pre quarter-final against Chandigarh in Bengaluru on Monday.
Shami’s onslaught that had three fours and and a couple of stunning sixes, came in the death overs as he took the Chandigarh bowlers to the cleaners.
With Bengal down and out at 114 for 8 in the 16th over, Shami came in and swung his bat like a sword, smacking the opposition bowlers to all corners of the park.
His knock came at a stunning strike rate of 188.24 as he propelled Bengal to 159 for 9 from a precarious spot.
Shami turned out to be the second highest scorer for Bengal in the game after Karan Lal’s 25-ball 33 at the top.
Pradipta Pramanik scored 30 off 24 while Writtick Chatterjee fired 12-ball 28 in Bengal’s score of 159 after Chandigarh invited them to bat first.
Shami is likely to be available for the last two Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia.
However, the veteran is yet to receive fitness clearance from the NCA’s medical team, which is a “matter of formality”.
Since his return from a year-long injury lay-off, Shami bowled 42 overs in a Ranji Trophy game apart from playing 8 SMAT T20 games.
