Derby disapoints: India Club ease pass Town Club in Premier Cup

India Club and Town Club are arch-rivals in the sporting history of Barak Valley. Both the prestigious clubs have offered some scintillating matches in the past. But, in recent years, India Club has started to claim its dominance in Cricket.

The Group matches of Assam Premier Club Cup 2021 are on and today it was the derby day. Winning the toss young skipper of Town Club, Abhishek Deb decided to bat first. It was damp and soft and veteran Raihan Jomeel Mazumder had a subtle smile after the toss. Deb is a youngster and has recently been named the captain of the District Under-16 team for the upcoming tournament.

However, he lost his cool while batting. Deb opened the innings for Town Club with Ram Chandra Das. Experienced campaigner, Samik Das started the bowling attack for India Club and Deb played a poor shot to gift Das his first wicket of the tournament. After the captain’s dismissal, Town Club never got getting. There was no partnership and momentum was always against them as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Ram Chandra Das scored 11, Amit Baishya 12 failed to build a partnership. The only significant contribution from the bat came from Saidul A F Barlaskar as he scored 29 of 41 balls.

India Club was clinical on the field, they picked catches and their disciplined effort helped in restricting Town Club for only 86. The 40-over match was cut short by four and 87 in 36 overs was never going to be enough to defend against the mighty India Club. Parikshit Banik and Shekhar Jyoti Barman picked three wickets each.

Mister consistent of last season, Pradeep Sarkar opened the innings with Govinda Rajbangshi. Sarkar lost his partner early but kept building the innings with Sunzow Brahma (39 NO). Batting at 27, he was bowled by young Abhishek Deb while trying to sweep him for a big six. Prashant Kumar played a stylish knock to join Bramha and together they took India Club to the total securing an eight wicket win.