Rehan Jomail Mazumdar is a veteran cricketer who still worries opponent bowlers. Today, in Silchar DSA’s Narayan Paul Memorial Super Division league against United Club, Rehan showed a glimpse of his destructive batting. But it was the veteran cricketer’s mind game as captain that won India Club the match against defending champions.
Town Club has already qualified for the knock-out stage after winning all the league matches. Arched rivals, India Club played United Club earlier today at SM Dev Stadium. It was a battle for the second position on the leaderboard. Batting first, India Club had the backbone of its batting lineup broken in the early stage of the game.
Opener Gobinda Rajbongshi was dismissed for a duck. With a century under his belt, other opener, Parvej Musaraf did get a start but was bowled after scoring only 18 runs of 31 balls. Both the openers were sent to the pavilion by Pradip Sarkar who himself scored a century in the last match. Emerging sensation, Prashant Kumar got off to a dream start for the India Club. He had managed to hit two sixes and two fours before getting out playing a poor shot.
After Prashant Kumar (26) got out, Rehan Mazumdar and Ikramul Ali started building a partnership. Rehan was dominating the bowlers while Ikramul was taking his time. Both of them were converting ones into twos and picking up boundaries every now and then. Leg spinner Bishal Rudra Paul had tossed one up to Rehan which he had despatched to the top tier of the gallery in the midwicket batting from Cachar College end.
It took an exceptional diving catch from Anubhav Das at ‘point’ to dismiss dangerous-looking Rehan. That became the turning point of the innings and at one stage it looked like that dive from Anubhav will sink India Club’s hopes. After scoring 41 runs, Rehan Mazumdar got out when India Club’s score was 134 for the loss of four wickets. Ikramul was still batting, but from there, the batting line-up collapsed to get dismissed for 167 adding only 33 more. Ikramul (44) was the highest scorer from India Club.
Credit must be given to United’s skipper Masarob Hussain Laskar. The experienced wicket-keeper read the pitch well and made the right bowling changes at the right time. Sukanta Dey was suddenly called by the captain and introduced from the Cachar College end. He dismissed Rehan Mazumdar and three other batsmen to end with figures – 6.1 overs 18 runs and four wickets. The India Club batsmen tried to counter-attack the slow off-spin bowler who was getting a lot of turn and bounce from the pitch. He was well supported by another late introduction to the bowling lineup Fajlur Rahman who picked three wickets in three overs which included the crucial wicket of set – Ikramul.
It looked like Masarob was set to win the mind game against Rehan, but the latter had his own plans. United’s openers are in dream form. Last year’s best batsman Raju Das scored two consecutive half-centuries and Pradeep Sarkar was the man of the match in the last game against Oasis as he scored a ton. Sarkar looked like he is starting from where he ended. Pacer Amit Boro’s first over was a cake-walk for Sarkar. But then captain Rehan quickly switched to plan ‘B’. Despite having quality pace bowlers in his arsenal, he called left-arm orthodox bowler, Chandradip Das to bowl at Raju Das.
Standing at slip, Rehan had an aggressive off-side field as Chandradip was turning it away from the batsman. The plan worked and Raju Das was dismissed for a duck, caught at slip by Rehan. After Raju’s dismissal, walked in Sukanta Dey and it looked like Sunday is his day. He scored three phenomenal boundaries. Again the pacers weren’t getting anything out of the wicket and so, Rehan went to the other left-arm orthodox, Rudrajeet Deka. Sukanata Dey (18) played a poor shot and got out caught by Parvez Musaraf on Deka’s bowling and that opened the flood-gates.
After Sukanta Dey’s dismissal, United had another batting collapse. Prasenjit Sarkar 5, captain Masarob Hussain Laskar 1, Anubhav Das 1, Fajlur Rahman 6, Abhik Lala 0, Nirjhar Das 2. Bishal Rudra Paul (16) was the only other batsman to have a double-figure score. Pradeep Sarkar (51) watched his partners crumble like a house of cards from the other end. With 235 runs, Pradip Sarkar is the highest scorer in this tournament so far, but today, highest wicket-taker in the tournament, Rudrajeet Deka had the last smile as Sarkar was one of the six wickets he picked.
United Club was all out for 119 giving India Club a 49-run victory. With this win, India Club secures the second position and a berth in the semi-finals. Apart from Deka’s six wickets, Chandradip Das picked three and Amar Jyoti Kalita pitched in with one crucial wicket.
Please note: We have made an amendment to the story as the match between Club Oasis and Yogayog Sangha has been postponed due to government programmes.
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