Shahbaz Ahmed's all-round show helps Tapan Memorial Club to clinch the inaugural Bengal T20 Challenge

Riding on skipper Shahbaz Ahmed's terrific all-round display, Tapan Memorial Club pipped Mohun Bagan to emerge champions of the inaugural edition of the Bengal T20 Challenge. Earlier, Mohun Bagan won the toss and asked Tapan Memorial Club to bat first. TMC did not get off to an ideal start, losing four wickets in the space of 8 overs. With the scorecard reading 40-4, Kaif Ahmed joined the company of Shahbaz Ahmed at the crease. The duo employed a cautious approach, taking the team past the 100-run mark in the 15th over. The 79-run partnership between the skipper and Kaif Ahmed helped TMC to post a fighting 145 on board. 

In reply, Mohun Bagan got off to a decent start. Bagan, 61 for two at the end of the 10th over, would have fancied their chances to overhaul the target. Realising that the pitch offered some amount of assistance to the spinners, Shahbaz introduced spin into the attack. The move proved to be effective as the spinners mounted pressure on Mohun Bagan's potent batting line-up from the word go. 

The skipper took matters in his own hands, picking regular wickets. A barrage of dot balls and the increasing asking rate multiplied pressure on the batsmen. The spinners triggered a batting collapse after a decent start. All hopes hinged on the shoulders of Anustup Majumdar to take the game as deep as possible as he has always done for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy. But it wasn't meant to be. Just when he looked to take the game away from Tapan Memorial, Anustup holed out to Shahbaz in the 18th over. 

The wily all-rounder's fluent half-century and a five-wicket haul were instrumental in Tapan Memorial Club's 33-run win over Mohun Bagan. How often do we see a player scoring a fifty and scalping five wickets in a T20 game?

Summary: Tapan Memorial Club 145/6 in 20 overs (Shahbaz Ahmed 54, Kaif Ahmed 39*; Akash Deep 2/15, Rajkumar Pal 2/26) beat Mohun Bagan 112 in 18 overs (Anustup Majumdar 46, Vivek Singh 30; Shahbaz Ahmed 5/10, Ramesh Prasad 2/15).