Bengal Cricket: Arnab Nandi leads Hooghly Rivers to Inter-District One-Day Title

Arnab Nandi led Hooghly Rivers to Inter-District One-Day Title on Thursday at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Nadia Super Dazzlers could not hold on to the pressure from the team from Hooghly as they collapsed while chasing a fighting total of 254. Arnab Nandi was adjudged Player of the match after the off-spinning allrounder of Bengal scored a quick-fire 50 from 45 balls and took 3 important wickets with the ball in hand.

Great start from Hooghly

Hooghly won the toss to start the match on a happy note and decided to bat first on a sunny, warm day at the heavenly Eden Gardens. Openers Abhijit Mal and Sonu Narayan proved captain Arnab right by stitching a solid partnership of 30 after 7 overs. Meanwhile, Nadia did not look that happy with their best in business Sayan Ghosh operating and failed to give breakthrough for them.

With the pacers failing to do anything special for them, Raj Kumar Pal, the captain of Nadia made a double change with Soumodip Bagchi and him from both ends. Soumodip Bagchi brought the first blood as wicket-keeper Suprodip Debnath stumped Sonu from a classical left-arm spin by him. Sonu went for a good looking 29.

Sachin Yadav's counter attack

With Hooghly 73/1, Nadia was looking to put a break to their run flow. But, next batter Sachin Yadav had other plans. The southpaw tried some sweep and reverse sweeps to rattle the bowling of Raj Kumar Pal and Soumodip Bagchi. That led Raj Kumar to make another change in the bowling as experienced Susanta Das was brought in the attack. Sachin welcomed him with a huge six over extra cover, his and Hooghly's first of the inning.

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Sachin kept on hitting the ball out of the park as he departed Sanjay Sadhukhan for two sixes in the deep mid-wicket region to make it clear for everyone that the gear was already changed by him. Although, everything would have changed if Arnab Sikder and Susanta Das could hold a miss-hit from Sachin in the deep mid-wicket. Meanwhile, with everything happening on the other end, Abhijit Mal completed his fifty off just 67 balls.

Nadia's comeback in the first inning

However, an inspiring bowling change from Raj Kumar saw two quick wickets fall as Tanujit Acahrjee's off-spin sent Abjihit back to the dressing room for 71. From the other end, Sayan Ghosh was brought in for a Mohunabagn tussle with Arnab Nandi. Though Arnab won that little battle, Bagchi kept on taking wickets from another end. Writam Porel, Deepak Prasad could not contribute that much to the total. Suddenly, Hooghly looked in trouble with Sayan picking up Ronit Ghosh and Bidyut Adhikary.

Ravikant and Arnab Nandi'a slog hitting

But, Arnab and Ravikant had other plans as both of them put up a 50-run partnership for the eighth wicket. Hooghly finished with 253/7 after a full quota of 45 overs. Arnab's last-ball six was something to remember for all his fans present at the Eden Gardens.

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Durgesh Dbuey's fiery first spell

In the cinematic Eden Gardens, Nadia's openers never looked comfortable against the pace and swing of left-arm Durgesh Dubey. Arnab Sikder went for a duck after fighting through 8 balls. Bengal U-25 player Suprodip then came and handled the pressure with a huge task on his young shoulder. Durgesh looked threatening throughout his first four overs.

Nadia's comeback in the second ining

Soumyajit Roy and Suprodip Debnath waited for the spinners to come into the action. Saumya Pakray was welcomed with two huge sixes by Suprodip Debnath. Even Soumyajit Roy joined the party with a huge six to Arnab Nandi. Nadia looked settled at 72/1 after 15 at the drinks break.

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The drinks break and Ayan Gupta's lone battle

But, Hooghly made a comeback soon after the break as Ronit Ghosh picked up Soumyajit Roy for 33. That led the Ayan Gupta to come into the crease for Nadia. The battle was on as Ayan was told to be the main hold for Nadia. Meantime, Suprodip never looked in trouble as he kept on smashing the spinners for boundaries. But, Saumya Pakray took his revenge as Surpodip went for an expensive sweep and was caught at deep backward square leg for a well made 41 off 56 balls.

Hooghly's turn to hold the trophy

Post that, Nadia never looked in control of the chase. Although Ayan Gupta kept the hope alive as he went past his fifty in just 58 balls, Nadia kept on losing wicket from the other end. Nadia's lower middle-order crumbled as Arnab Nandi cleaned bowled Ayan Gupta and put an end to Nadia's hope. However, the ball looked to keep a bit low from the club house of Eden Gardens. Nadia was bundled out for 177 as Hooghly won the title by 76 runs.

"No one will go with empty hands": Subhomoy Das

The whole selection committee was present at the Eden Gardens to have a look at how the young guns from the outskirts of Kolkata were doing. Subhomay Das, the chairman of the Senior Selection Committee said, "The selection is open for everyone. We are selecting a 36-year old Nikantha Das and we are also selecting 18-year old Abishek Porel as well. As long as they possess skills and talent we will back them."

"We have our eyes on Soumodip Bagchi, the left-arm spinner. He is a good prospect. And, another guy is Ayan Gupta. Last year he missed the Ranji squad by a brisk. He can be in the team anytime if the keeps on scoring runs. No one will go with empty hands if they keep performing," he added.

Meanwhile, Avishek Dalmiya, the CAB President at the post-match presentation said, "We have big plans for all the players who did well in this tournament. Soon the plans will be rolled out. Be assured that everyone who performed well will not go with empty hands."

"Younger players will surely benefit from this tournament:" Arnab Nandi

Both the captains Raj Kumar Pal and Arnab Nandi thanked CAB for giving the limelight to district cricket. "The matches at the knock out stage of this tournament are as good as it gets. I thank CAB for promoting district cricket. The younger players will surely benefit from this," Arnab Nandi said in an exclusive interview with Sportz Point.

Meanwhile, Raj Kumar Pal felt if they could have fielded better the result could have been different. "We should have fielded better. We gave 30 extra runs in fielding. Otherwise, the result could have been different," he added.

Arnab and Raj both are confident that younger players who did well will benefit from this tournament. "Look at Suprodip Debnath. He scored a 99 last year for us in the final and ended up being in the U-25 team. This is why doing well in this tournament is important when the selectors are looking at you, "Raj Kumar Pal said.

Meanwhile, Arnab Nandi said, "Hooghly always produced good cricketers. As a player who has played cricket for a long, I can assure you that players like Abhijit Mal, Ronit Ghosh and Durgesh Dubey have the potential to do well for Bengal in future."