E R wins All India Railway Cricket tourament second year in a row

Patna, May 10 (UNI) A devastating spell by right arm spinner Pranab Prasad (6/39) today helped defending Champion Eastern Railway lift the B C Ganguly cup of the 52nd All India Railway Cricket Tournament for the second time in succession, thrashing strong contenders Western Railway, Mumbai by 166 runs in the final at the Moinul Haque stadium here.

On the third and final day, Western Railwaymen facing an uphill task of scoring 344 runs in the allotted 40 overs for a straight win were bundled out for a paltry 177 runs in 25 overs with Pranab Prasad claiming six wickets for only 39 runs.

Among the Western Railway batsmen, opener Pallav Bora scored the highest 44 runs off 35 deliveries and hit four boundaries and one six, followed by test discard and captain Sanjay Bangar, who hit all round to score 37 runs from 27 deliveries.

He also hit twice to the fence and as many over-boundaries during his brief stay at the wicket.

Pallav and Sanjay were also instrumental in setting up the highest partnership in the second wicket scoring 67 runs for the team.

But as soon as Pranab Prasad was brought into the attack by Eastern Railway skipper Rahul Dev, all hopes of Western railwaymen to win the tie vanished into thin air with most of their remaining wickets falling one after another in quick succession.

Among his prize catches were Pallav Bora and Sanjay Bangar, both of whom failed to judge his spin and fell victims.

After the exit of both batsmen, it was only a matter of time for the Eastern Railway to clinch a sensational win with 15 overs to spare.

Eastern Railway pacer Ambar Roy was declared Man of the Match for his swasbuckling spell of 22-9-38-5 in the first innings of the final.

Later East Central Railway Additional General Manager VK Manglik distributed the prizes.

Brief score of the final : Eastern Railway 270 and 167 for five.

Western Railway 94 all out and 177 all out.

UNI