Kolkata: Bengal secured a thrilling last-over win over Tripura in the East Zone Twenty20 league for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Eden Gardens today. A match winning fifth wicket partnership of 61 runs off 49 balls between Captain Manoj Tiwary and Pankaj Shaw saw Bengal score a competitive 152 for 7 against Tripura.
In reply Tripura finished at 147 for eight in a closely fought match giving Bengal a 5 run victory and 4 points in the bag.
Bengal won the toss and chose to bat but at 3 for 43 found the going tough. Sreevats Goswami (17) and Wriddhiman Saha (12) flattered to deceive up the order as S S Majumdar and A K Sarkar got the vital breakthroughs to peg the home team back.
This brought Manoj and Pankaj together. Manoj showed cautious aggression as he rotated strike in between boundaries to push the score forward. At 39 off 30 with two sixes Manoj looked set for a big score but was sadly stumped of a fast and wide one from Gurinder Sigh that foxed the Bengal skipper.
Debabrata Das walked in and added some beef to the score with a quickfire 23 off 13 balls with four hits to the fence before being run out by Bose. Pankaj remained not out on 39 off 32 balls with five boundaries.
Tripura’s run chase got off to a stuttering start as Kanishk Seth ran through the top order. Rookie Bengal bowler Kanishk Seth was the pick of the bowlers taking three wickets for 23 runs. He bowled with poise and grace and showed maturity on his young shoulders.
Mura Singh gave a scare in the 18th over belting Pragyan Ojha for 17 runs with two boundaries and a six before being caught at short third man off the bowler.
A fine 19th over by Ashoke Dinda in which he took two wickets for just one run set up the last over nicely. Sayan Ghosh concede 4 runs off the first ball, but took another wicket and pitched three dot balls to make sure Bengal reached home safely.
Giving the 19th over to Dinda was a master stroke by Manoj Tiwary. When asked about the matter the Bengal skipper replied,” I always think that in this type of pressure situation the best bowler of the team should bowl the over and in our team Dinda is our strike bowler. He has a lot of variation under his beltt, so I gave him the ball and he delivered.”
Bengal bolwer Kanishk Seth left cricket for one year or so due to a major back injury. After that Bengal officials helped him during his rehabilitation process, as they sent him to NCA for proper rehab. When questioning about his journey during this time he said,” It was a learning process for him. He worked hard during this period and now he want to play good cricket in the upcoming matches.”
In another match the batsmen sealed a three-wicket win for Odisha in nerve-wracking 150-run chase against Jharkhand, while later in the afternoon match, Bengal seamers trio of Kanishk Seth (3/23), Ashok Dinda (2/28) and Sayan Ghosh (2/20) put up a disciplined effort at the death to pip Tripura by five runs.
Brief Scores:
Bengal 152/7; 20 overs (Manoj Tiwary 39, Pankaj Shaw 39, Debabrata Das 23; Sanjay Majumder 2/23) beat Tripura 147/8; 19.5 overs (Smit Patel 41, Manisankar Murasingh 27, Rajat Dey 21; Kanishk Seth 3/23).
Jharkhand 149/5; 20 overs (Ishank Jaggi 47, Kumar Deobrat 44 not out; Suryakant Pradhan 3/19) lost to Odisha 153/7; 19.5 overs (Anurag Sarangi 58, Abhishek Yadav 26 not out; Varun Aaron 2/23, Rahul Shukla 2/29) by three wickets.