Kolkata: Tapan Memorial becomes the first team to reach Bengal T20 Challenge final beating Kalighat Club by 25 runs thanks to Vikash Singh’s all-round masterclass performance on Tuesday (December 8) at Eden Gardens.
Vikash Singh bagged 4 wickets and smashed a quickfire 22-ball 34 while opening the innings for Tapan Memorial. An elated Tapan Memorial skipper Shahbaz Ahmed said, “There was help for the spinners on the wicket so we wanted to target the medium pacers while batting. 150 was our primary target but we could’ve done better at the death. We were positive that we’ll be able to defend this total. We are very to reach the finals.”
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Earlier Kalighat won the toss and put Tapan Memorial to bat first. Vikash helped Tapan get off to a good start with a quickfire 22-ball 34 along with Koushik Ghosh (25). Kaif Ahamed later hit a couple of sixes to score 46 off 38 balls while Kalighat bowlers also did a pretty decent job to restrict their opponents to 149/8 in their quota of 20 overs.
Amit Kuila was at his lethal best with 3 wickets leaking just 16 runs while Aamir Gani bagged 2 wickets for Kalighat. While defending the total Tapan skipper Shahbaz gave them an early breakthrough by removing Kalighat opener Jayojit Basu in the second over while Prinan Dutta showed off some gritty skills to smash 51 off 50 deliveries.
But Tapan bowlers kept their pressure on as they took 7 Kalighat wickets for 37 runs amongst which Vikash bagged 4 for 15. Four-wicket taker Vikash said, “Feeling very happy. We are excited to play the finals and everyone in the team is charged up.” Apart from Vikash, Gaurav Chauhan bagged 2 wickets for Tapan Memorial.
The final of Bengal T20 will begin at 4 pm on Wednesday (December 9) with former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta ringing the Eden Bell. In between the innings a musical recital will be done by acclaimed singer Surajit Chatterjee.
