Vijay Hazare Trophy: Sudip Chatterjee’s brilliant innings help Bengal to complete hat-trick of victories

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Sudip Chatterjee scored 85 runs for Bengal on Wednesday. Image Source: Facebook

Internet Desk: Manoj Tiwary’s Bengal continued their dream run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, as they beat Team Rajasthan by 2 wickets in a nail biting contest, thanks to Sudip Chatterjee’s brilliant knock at the MRF-Pachiyappa’s Ground, Chennai on Wednesday. Team Rajasthan posted a big total of 274 runs from 50 overs. In reply Bengal chased the target successfully with 6 balls to spare. Sudip remained not out on 85 along with Ashoke Dinda in the end.

Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President Sourav Ganguly has lauded Bengal’s performance too.” Bengal is playing really well this season. Our boys missed a game in Ranji Trophy due to a natural calamity, which was the main reason for our exit. In Mushtaq Ali T-20 Zonal Bengal became champion and here the team is playing really well. I had already told earlier that we are a good side,” he added.

After returning from injury Sudip Chatterjee played a classy innings of 85 runs. On being asked about Sudip’s comeback Sourav added,” We look after them always. The rehab specialists look after their fitness and their rehabilitation. We always follow a system that’s why the vision 20-20 is here. You can see a lot of players are coming and performing well for Bengal. Today Bengal played without Sayan Ghosh, but  still we have done really well and Kanishk performed brilliantly.”

Earlier Manoj won the toss and sent Team Rajasthan to bat. Team Rajasthan opener Dishant Yagnik hammered Bengal bowlers through all parts of the game to score a ton. He was well backed by Salman Khan (35), Pramod Yadav (34) and T N Dhillon (37). Kanishk Seth was the pick of the bowler for Bengal as he took 4 wickets for 59 runs. Dinda, Porel, Ojha and Manoj shared one wicket each.

In reply Bengal started well as the openers Shreevats Goswami (47) and Abhimanyu Eswaran (79) shared a century partnership. But after that only Sudip Chatterjee (85*) stayed at one end and Bengal frequently lost wickets on the other side. Manoj Tiwary, Anustup Majumder, Pankaj Kumar Shaw and Pramod Chandila everybody failed to score against Team Rajasthan. Kamalesh Nagarkoti and Rahul Chahar shared 3 wickets each as they almost took their team home. But thanks to Sudip Chatterjee, as he remained calm till the end to take Bengal to victory by two wickets.

Sudip was really happy with his performance. He was not part of Bengal’s squad for the last two or three months as he suffered a broken index finger.” The openers started well for us but I was in a bit of pressure as our prime batsmen in the middle order could do well. My only aim was to bat till the end. The wicket assisted the bowlers but I knew that there was something for the batsmen too. I had played the deliveries according to their merit.”

Two teams will qualify for the next round from each group. Bengal still have to play the heavyweights like Mumbai, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Manoj’s men will face Mumbai on March 3 at M.A Chidambaram Stadium. Sudip is confident before facing Mumbai,” We will be mentally prepared before facing Mumbai on Friday as we had won our last three games on a trot. If we win our next match against Mumbai, it will be easy for us to reach next round,” he added.

It is also known that fully-fit Rohit Sharma will play the last two matches for Mumbai in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He will not be a part of Mumbai side for Bengal game. On being asked about Rohit’s availability, Sudip said,” It doesn’t matter to us who will play for Mumbai. We always believe in team game.”