Internet Desk: Bengal continued their unbeaten run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, as they beat another heavyweight side Madhya Pradesh by 14 runs in a nail biting contest, thanks to some great batting by Sudip Chatterjee and skipper Manoj Tiwary, at the IC-Gurunanak College Ground, Chennai on Saturday. With this win Bengal have qualified for the knock-out stages of the tournament. Manoj’s men posted a total of 270 runs from their allotted 50 overs.
Earlier Bengal won the toss and choose to bat first against Madhya Pradesh. Both the openers failed to do well for their side as Bengal lost Abhimanyu Easwaran (20), Shreevats Goswami (15) after putting just 37 on the board. After that Sudip Chatterjee (91) and captain Manoj Tiwary (59) held the innings together to take Bengal to a respective score. The duo added crucial 127 runs for the third wicket. Except them Debabrata Das (25) and Kanishk Seth (22) scored some useful runs for their team. Ishwar Pandey, Puneet Datey and Venkatesh Iyer shared 2 wickets each for Madhya Pradesh.
Went into bowl, Bengal bowlers were hammered by MP batsmen in all parts of the ground. At one stage Madhya Pradesh were 214 for 5 from 39.1 overs. Harpreet Singh Bhatia (109) was the top scorer for Bengal. But the bowlers responded well for Bengal as Madhya Pradesh could only score 22 runs in next ten overs before getting all-out. Sayan Ghosh (3/43) and Kanishk Seth (2/68) were the pick of the bowlers for their side.
Bengal top order batsman Sudip Chatterjee made a record in List A cricket, though he was unaware of it. After knowing it from xtratime.in that he has completed his 1000 runs in List A career, he asid,” I have no additional feeling about this achievement, though I am a bit disappointed that I coudn’t complete my ton. I was trying to score quick runs for my team during that period and that’s why I got out on 91. I am happy that we have won the match against a side, which is well known as a good one day team. Madhya Pradesh had chased down a huge target of 290 runs against Goa on Friday. Today also they were batting really well. At one stage when Harpreet Singh Bhatia was batting we thought that we might loose the match too. But Manoj Da came in to bowl to take a crucial wicket in the match and after that we got our momentum back.”
Sudip was a bit disappointed with BCCI’s fixture for Ranji Trophy.” It is a very hot weather here in Chennai now. We are playing our matches back to back with just a few hours rest every day, which is becoming very hectic as we have to spend almost nine hours in the field. But we have nothing to do about this and it is a part and parcel of our life,” he added.
Bengal will face current Ranji champion Gujarat in their last group league encounter on Monday. Sudip is confident about this match.” We have no special plan about this match. Our only aim is to win all the matches in this group. It will be more satisfying to qualify for the knock-outs with winning all games,” said Sudip.