A strong bowling attack and an excellent track record at home should give Bengal an edge over Andhra Pradesh when the two undefeated teams meet in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals at the Bengal Cricket Academy (BCA) ground here on Friday. Bengal registered five straight wins, including three at home, to top Group C with 36 points, while Andhra finished second in Group A with four clear wins and 31 points after tying with two others.

The BCA ground, where Bengal almost beat Assam and then beat Services, has served the hosts well. The Abhimanyu Easwaran-led team will hope to continue their excellent performance at this picturesque venue.

Bengal will rely on their international pace attack, which includes Mohammed Shami (27 wickets), Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar as well as medium pacer Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, who can serve as useful lower-order batsmen. Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed, an international all-rounder who is Bengal’s top wicket-taker (35) and fourth-highest run-scorer (363), will provide balance to the team. The success of the bowlers has helped Bengal take 20 wickets five times this season.

Sumant Gupta (425), Sudeep Chatterjee (417), Abhimanyu (372), Anustup Majumdar (358) and Sudeep Gharami (352) have a lot of experience in the batting department. For Andhra, Abhishek Reddy (582), Sheikh Rashid (523) and K.

S. Bharat (369) has made a big contribution with the bat.

This explains why the team has collected two aggregates of two 500-plus and 470-plus. The ability of captain Ricky Bhui and all-rounder Nitish Reddy cannot be underestimated. Left arm spinner Saurabh Kumar (30), off spinner T.

Vijay (23) and fast bowler K. Saiteja (21) is the leading wicket-taker for the tourists. While batsmen and bowlers are expected to be treated equally on a sporting track, the progress of the competition will reveal who takes better advantage of the conditions.