Bengal win pre-season tournament

Cricket Association of Bengal maintained their temperament and grab a comprehensive six- wicket victory over Karnataka State Cricket Association to clinch the Dr (Capt) K Thimmappaiah memorial all-India invitational tournament at Alur Ground on Thursday, 18th August.

In a tied situation where both teams could have taken the initiative at the final day, Bengal eventually held their nerve to get the success.

To chase the target of 230 runs Bengal team resumed the final day on 51/1 and were immediately lost their opening batsman Prasenjit Das (28), who fell without adding to his overnight score.

Team KSCA continued to apply pressure to the Bengal team and picked up two more wickets in quick succession to put Bengal on the backfoot at 90/4.

But Agniv Pan and Writtick Chatterjee, the two talented batsmen from Bengal had different plans in their mind for KSCA. They built a wall in front of team KSCA, made a fourth-wicket partnership of 145 from 192 balls.

Agniv made an unbeaten 91 runs from 117 balls with 13 fours, while Writtick scored an unbeaten knock of 56 from 85 balls that included three fours and a six.

Ronit More was the most successful bowler for Karnataka finishing with two wickets for 34 runs.

Brief scores: At Alur (1) : KSCA XI: 130 all out in 59.3 overs and 309 all out in 100 overs. Cricket Association of Bengal: 209 all out in 80.5 overs and 235/4 in 56.3 overs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 43, Prasenjit Das 28, Agniv Pan 91 not out., Writtick Chatterjee 56 not out.; Ronit More 2-34).

Many top players from India had been seen in action in this tournament. All matches were a 4-day fixture like Ranji Trophy and 16 teams from all over the India were seen in this prestigious tournament. The hosts association had three teams representing them and there was a side from the National Cricket Academy as well. Apart from KSCA XI, the two other local clubs were namely KSCA President’s XI and KSCA Colts.

Mumbai Cricket Association, Cricket Association of Bengal, Baroda Cricket Association, Haryana CA, Himachal CA, Andhra CA, Goa CA, Kerala CA, Assam CA, Tripura CA, Odisha CA and Dr. DY Patil side were the teams invited for the tournament.

This is the only competition in the country where matches will be played over four-day duration other than the Ranji Trophy and from this tournament, it was cleared that all the teams got their Ranji Trophy preparation for this season.