Bengal all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed delivered a stellar performance, which turned the Ranji Trophy contest against Kerala on its head. Shahbaz’s third First Class century (121) enabled Bengal to recover from 108 for five and post a match-winning first-innings total of 350 on a challenging surface.

The all-rounder was pleased with his show and rated the knock as one of the best in his career. “I am on a comeback trail after injuring my knee in the Duleep Trophy. I did well with the ball in the last match and I have done well with the bat now. It is pretty satisfying that I could contribute to the team’s win,” Shahbaz said.

“It was not an easy pitch to bat on: there was help for the spinners. I took chances and played my shots. Ankur Paul, Sumanta Gupta and Pradipta Pramanik also played their part in helping us reach a good total. Pradipta was taking wickets from one end and I only had to do the supporting role. Overall, it was a good team effort,’’ he added.

Pramanik was delighted to bag his maiden 10-wicket match haul in First Class cricket, saying he concentrated more on bowling the “right length”. “The ball was turning when I was batting and I realised I needed to hit the right length to extract maximum help from the pitch. So I bowled a fuller length and got the ball to bounce. Most of my dismissals came from catches in the slip cordon,’’ he said.

Bengal coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla said it was a team decision not to enforce the follow-on. “It was humid and the bowlers needed rest. We didn’t want to bat again, so we decided to forgo the bonus point. We are happy with six points. The boys showed character to bounce back and I was a little surprised when we were asked to bat first on this pitch. [Mohammed] Shami is a champion bowler... he bowled with a lot of intent,’’ Shukla said.