Friends Of The Earth, AP Dutta Fighters win to secure berth in Semi-Finals of BUKSS Media Cricket

The second day of Barak Upatyaka Kreeda Sangbadik Sangstha (BUKSS) organised Jookto Media Cricket was more exciting than the first as there were teams playing virtual knockouts. The first match of the day was between Trinoyonee Khabar Heroes and AP Dutta Fighters. The Heroes had lost their first match against Ganashakti Panthers which meant it was a knockout match for them, on the other hand, AP Dutta Fighters who were playing their first match had the opportunity to secure a berth in the semis by knocking out their opponent from the tournament. 

AP Dutta Fighters won the toss and decided to field first. It looked like a bad decision from the Fighters’ captain as the Heroes got off to a flying start scoring 16 in the first over. Tapash Nath (18) and Bhola Nath (10) brought the momentum on their side but the spinners managed to bring back the Fighters in the game. Shyam Sinha Picked up two wickets and gave away only 8 off his three overs and Anirban Roy Choudhury bowled his three overs conceding 13 runs. Subrata Das capitalised the slog overs for the Heroes and scored a quickfire 26 of 15 balls to set a target of 105 for the Fighters.

Heroes captain Abhijit Deb got his team to a dream start picking up the top three Fighters batsman in his first over. A 51 run partnership from Ashok Rajkumar and Anirban Roy Choudhury got the Fighters back in the game. Anirban Roy Choudhury played the anchor’s role and scored 52 runs from 34 balls. However, Pintu Suklabadiya played a key knock of 25 runs of 11 balls which took the Fighters to the Semis of the annual tournament. Abhijit Deb picked up four wickets for the Heroes in his three overs but had no support on the other end.

The second match of the day was a close call as Friends Of The Earth News Rockers took on SML Karimganj Press. The latter won the toss and asked the Rockers to bat first. The hero for the Rockers in their first match, Aniruddha Laskar started well but his innings was cut down to only 11 of 14 by Saddak who bowled him. The Rockers team showed it to the audience that they are not a one-man-show as despite losing Laskar early they managed to score 119 in their 15 overs.

Ruhul Amin rose to the occasion and scored a steady 30. The momentum shifted towards the Rockers after Debashish Shome switched gears and picked up 15 in one over. He scored 27 of 23 balls and Manoj Kr Roy scored 16 of 17. Karimganj bowled six bowlers and five of them picked up a wicket each.

The press team from Karimganj got off to a good start but Manoj Kr. Roy managed to break the flow by giving the Rockers timely breakthroughs. Roy picked up three wickets by giving away only 15 runs. Humayun Kabir Zasim scored 39 runs but could not take his team though. The Rockers won the match by seven runs.

The league rounds will come to an end tomorrow. In day three’s first match the Fighters will play Ganashakti Panthers and the winner of that match will play either Budhu’s Hailakandi or Karimganj in the Semis. Friends Of The Earth News Rockers, on the other hand, awaits the loser of the Fighters versus Panthers match in the final four.