Never-say-die Ashok Dinda finishes off West Zone in remarkable win

As the session wore on he turned to Ashok Dinda and asked “When should we declare?”. “Leave them five overs to bat,” replied the senior Bengal pacer. The target that Dinda was suggesting was 238 – lower than any of the three completed innings on a Lahli pitch that was getting easier to bat on by the day.

Dinda isn’t particularly assertive off the field. A Bengal teammate jokes how, despite his favourite team being Real Madrid, Dinda is repeatedly saddled with the Barcelona side during FIFA gaming sessions on PS3 at the team hotel. On the field, however, Tiwary had little hesitation in backing the livewire of his bowling attack.

Nothing to chance

If anything, the odds should have been in Dinda’s favour. He had been desperately unlucky in finishing with just two wickets in the first innings. A catch was put down on his bowling and he had eventual centurion Ankit Bawne caught behind off a no ball when he was on 35. In the second innings though, Dinda would leave little to chance.

With the new ball, he delivered almost immediately. In the fifth over — the last before stumps — he shattered those of opener Vijay Zol. The wicket set the tone for proceedings on the final day. West were never really in contention of a successful chase. They were eventually bowled out for 135, having batted for little more than a session.

With the overnight dismissal, the West’s top order was exposed to the new ball in the first session. Dinda took just three overs to send back the other opener, Aditya Tare, with a delivery that jagged away and uprooted the off stump. An over later he had Parthiv edging a boundary past the slips. Eventually he got that man as well, caught off a leading edge for 39 to leave West at 101 for six.

Dinda’s final figures of 3/40 don’t really do justice to the way he terrorised the West’s batsmen all morning with pace and swing and lifted East’s bowling attack. “I am a lot slower than him but by having someone like him at the other end puts a lot of doubt in the batsman’s mind,” said Basant Mohanty, who finished with four wickets in the innings.

For Dinda, his performance in the opening first class game of the season was as he had wanted. “I like turning around a losing cause. I am not in a habit of giving up easily. Many people can take wickets, but it isn’t easy to finish off the match,” he said.

Captain Tiwary wasn’t surprised by Dinda’s performance, either. “He has tremendous self belief. His quality is that he never gives up. Any captain would always want him in his side,” Tiwary said of the pacer. “And he bowls with the same pace whether in the first over of the day or the last.”

Also, pace notwithstanding, Dinda knows how to get wickets. Or inspire others to get them. Just ask West’s formidable batting line-up.

Brief scores: East Zone 278 & 281/7 decl. West Zone 322 & 135 all out (B Mohanty 4/44, A Dinda 3/40). East won the match by 102 runs.