2017-18 Ranji Trophy: 5 best performers from the second round

#2 Ashok Dinda

Remember a fast bowler from West Bengal, who wears a headband, runs in, takes a decent leap in the air before delivers the ball? The evergreen Ashok Dinda has started his 2017-18 season with a bang. After scoring a quick-fire fifty in Bengal's first match against Services, Dinda starred with the ball against Chhattisgarh to get his team seven points from the match, thanks to an innings victory.

After being put into bat by Mohammad Kaif, centuries from Koushik Biplab Ghosh and Sudip Chatterjee, along with fifties from Abhishek Raman, Anustup Majumdar and B Amit helped Bengal post 529/7 in the first innings.

It was just one-way traffic since then as Ashok Dinda and Mohammad Shami ran through the Chhattisgarh batting line-up in the first innings as they took nine wickets between them to bundle out the hosts for just 110. Dinda took seven wickets conceding just 21 runs while Shami finished with figures of 2/44.

After being asked to follow on, opener Abhimanyu Chauhan (115) and Ashutosh Singh (71) put on a 172-run partnership for the second wicket and were taking their side to safety with the scorecard reading 206/1. It was when Shami struck in regular intervals and took four wickets to reduce the Mohammad Kaif-led team to 229/5 at the end of day 3.

Shami continued from where he left off on day 3 as he removed overnight batsman Jatin Saxena to register a fifth before Dinda cleaned up the tail by taking three of the last four wickets to give his side a win by an innings and 160 runs. Dinda finished with match figures of 10/47 while Shami accounted for 8 wickets in the match.

Both these bowlers played a big role in Bengal's win but Dinda's ten-wicket haul in the match earned him a place on this list ahead of his new ball partner.