Kolkata: Mohun Bagan won their first trophy of the local cricket season as they defeated Kalighat by 5 wickets to win the senior knock out tournament at JU Campus ground on Tuesday. Kalighat captain Manoj Tiwary’s brilliant hundred went in vain.
Kalighat won the toss and decided to bat first. Riding on a brilliant ton from captain Manoj Tiwary, Kalighat ended up scoring 259/6 in 49 overs. Since Mohun Bagan bowled an over short in the stipulated time a bonus of 10 runs was added to Kalighat’s total. The revised target was 269/6. Manoj scored 133 runs off 120 balls.
In reply, Mohun Bagan successfully chased the total in 49 overs. The Green and Maroon cricketers scored 264/5 in 49 overs. But Kalighat bowlers too failed to bowl the full quota of 50 overs in the stipulated time, thereby handing Mohun Bagan 10 more runs as penalty. For Mohun Bagan Vivek Singh was the top scorer with 89 runs. Both Arindam Ghosh 60*(70) and Subhomoy Das 51* scored unbeaten half centuries to take their team home.
To cheer his teammates, former Bengal captain and TMC candidate who recently fought the assembly elections was at the ground. Sreevats Goswami and Sudip Chatterjee had to take treatment on the field as they felt drowsy owing to the excessive heat.
Meanwhile, the CAB tournament committee was drawn into controversy as they decided to keep the semi finals and finals of JC Mukherjee on the same day. The JC Mukherjee semi final and final of 2nd Div will be played on May 27 while for the 1st Div the semi final and final will be played the next day i.e., May 28. Which meant a team going through to the finals will have to be on the field for 80 overs in this hot condition.
According to tournament committee chairman Subrata Sarkar, “It was decided earlier that the JC semi final and final was to be played on the same day,” further adding “In England such an itinerary is followed.”