CCL 2024: Bengal Tigers prevail over Mumbai Heroes; set up title clash with Karnataka Bulldozers

It’s been a busy three days for the Bengal Tigers, the only team with matches on all days of the CCL 2024 finale week. On March 15, as the number 2 team, Jisshu Senguptha and his team played the Karnataka Bulldozers in the first qualifier, which they lost. But with the format of the tournament allowing them one more chance, by playing the winner of the eliminator, they were out on the field again on March 16, locking horns with the Mumbai Heroes; an intense match that could have swung either way, but eventually went in favour of the Tigers. The Bengal team are now set for their third match against the Bulldozers and at finally breaking the latter’s undefeated record against them.

The Mumbai Heroes won the toss and decided to bowl first, perhaps buoyed by the result of last evening’s first qualifier, in which the Karnataka Bulldozers successfully chased a 100-run target. But then when you have made such a decision, the bowling and fielding has to be nothing short of exemplary. What the Heroes put on display, though, was anything but. The Bengal Tigers were merrily whacking the ball all across the stadium, while the Heroes dropped catches, had plenty of mis-fields, and couldn’t even effect run-outs that let one pair take 4 runs of a ball that did not make it to the boundary.

Powered by tournament top scorer Jammy Banerjee’s unbeaten knock of 65, the Bengal Tigers set the Heroes the second highest innings target of the tournament. They scored 140 in their 10 overs, which seemed like a very tall order at first, until Saqib and Shabir decided to go after the Tigers’ bowlers from the word go. Between them, they gave the Heroes a solid start, getting to 50 in only the 4th over; they were cruising along so well that it seemed that the duo were set on doing the task of chasing and getting a lead by themselves.

The Tigers eventually managed to put the brakes on the Heroes, by getting all the big-hitters out, but the latter still managed to get within arms’ length of the target, winding up on 123 for 7, 17 short, as they head into the second set of 10 overs. What the Bengal Tigers needed at this point was to continue their domination of the Heroes, but as much as they’ve improved their overall game, consistency is not part of their artillery yet.

By the 7th over, the Bengal Tigers were struggling at a sluggish 56 for the loss of 5 overs. This was turning out to be like the Qualifier 1 against the Bulldozers, with one sub-par innings followed by a much better one. Only this time, they flipped the order and came up with a measly 80 for the loss of 8 wickets, setting the Heroes a target of 98 runs.

But the Tigers were in no mood to let the Heroes steamroll them, even though it initially seemed that Riteish Deshmukh and co were all set to walk away with the match in style. The Tigers bided their time and struck when it mattered, capturing pivotal wickets at regular intervals, and stemming the run flow. In the end, their perseverance paid off, giving the Tigers yet another shot at glory in the CCL finale to be played on March 17.