BENGALURU: Seamlessly juggling politics and cricket, Manoj Tiwary on Friday achieved what no one else did in 88 years of the Ranji Trophy: score a hundred while being a sitting minister in a state government.
Without an iota of doubt, Tiwary’s 136 was the highlight of an inconsequential fifth day’s play as Bengal advanced to the semi-finals on the basis of its first-innings lead. In between signing files related to his constituency, Tiwary, a sitting minister of sports and youth affairs in the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, struck 19 fours and two sixes.
The 36-year-old veteran had scored 73 in Bengal’s first essay. There were notable contributions once again from other Bengal batters such as Shahbaz Ahmed (46), Anustup Majumdar (38) and Abhishek Porel (34). It is worth recalling that Ahmad, Majumdar and Porel all scored big in Bengal’s first innings too. The only consolation for Jharkhand was that Shahbaz Nadeem bagged 5 for 59 in the second innings.
Bengal will take on Madhya Pradesh in the semi-finals and will have a shot at qualifying for back-to-back Ranji Trophy finals. Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh will face off in the other semi-final. Both matches will kick off in Bengaluru on June 14.
BRIEF SCORES:Quarter-finals: Bengal 773/7 decl. & 318/7 decl. in 85.1 overs (M Tiwary 136, S Ahmed 46, S Nadeem 5/59) drew with Jharkhand 298
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