Vijay Hazare Trophy: Manoj Tiwary questions the mindset of the Bengal openers

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Don’t know what the openers were thinking, says Tiwary. File Pic

Internet Desk: After the deplorable defeat against Tamil Nadu in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, literally disgusted Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary questioned the mindset of his openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shreevats Goswami, as he felt the slow starts of their opening batsmen costed them the trophy.

Chasing a not-so-big target of 218, Easwaran consumed 11 balls for his 1 before being run-out while Goswami’s 23 came off 46 balls. If one takes Goswami’s three fours out of the equation, he played 43 deliveries to score 11 runs.

“I don’t know what was going through their (openers) minds as it was a very slow start to be honest. Seven runs in 7 overs is unacceptable. Considering both scored 100 in the last game, it was very difficult to understand the mindset. 100 out of 100 times, I will take a target of 217. Once the scoreboard pressure was on us, we could have still made it but we lost wickets at regular intervals,” said Tiwary after the match. But when experienced players like Dinesh Karthik rose to the occasion and guided his side to the desired route, Bengal’s experienced players like Manoj and Anushtup couldn’t quite repeat the same for their side.

One of the Bengal selectors Arup Bhattacharya said, “Our team played well throughout the season. It was just a bad day in office. A day when the batsmen couldn’t quite perform. But players like Manoj helped Bengal to win a lot of games this season and we hope the team will do well in future.”

Tiwary said that Easwaran and Shreevats need to be guided on how to win big maches.

“This match shows they are still young at this level.” He added, “Mentally, they need to be matured and need to know how to win big matches. These are the things individuals need to work. They got themselves under too much pressure. May be live coverage, the occasion but these are things at one level you learn on your own. Also, there need to be people who teach them”