Bhubaneswar: A relentless warrior, Basant Mohanty served Odisha cricket like none else.
From the day he made his Ranji Trophy debut on December 9, 2007 to January 27, 2023 — when he took his final bow from first-class cricket — the crafty medium-pacer remained committed to Odisha’s cause over a period of 15 long years.
In a remarkable coincidence, Basant’s first and last match in first-class cricket happened to be against Bengal. It doesn’t end there. Odisha won both matches with contributions from Basant. And, Basant’s first and last victims happened to be Bengal’s batting warrior Manoj Tiwary.
Then 21, debutant Basant had Tiwary caught behind by Haladhar Das for 17 to pick his maiden wicket way back in December 2007. It was one of his 8 wickets in a matchwinning performance at Kanchenjungha Stadium.
On Friday at Eden Gardens, the 36-year-old Basant induced another false stroke from former Team India batter Tiwary to have him caught by Rakesh Pattnaik for 52.
As Tiwary tweeted, Basant had reminded him on the first day of the match that he wants to finish with the Bengal great’s wicket.
A tribute tweet 4 a champion bowler who says goodbye 2 cricket in his last game against us here at Eden. 400 first class wicket at an average of 20 is a remarkable achievement. He reminded me yesterday that I was his debut wkt nd he wants 2 finish it with my wkt.
Basant Mohanty pic.twitter.com/aoj8lILGUD— MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) January 25, 2023
It was the last of his 403 wickets in first-class cricket – including 354 in Ranji Trophy – and played no mean role either. His dismissal of Tiwary on the final morning of the Elite Group A match triggered a collapse which saw Bengal slide from 239/3 to 276 all out in the second innings.
Odisha have hardly had a memorable Ranji season, losing 2 and drawing 4 before the Bengal clash. But even though they were out of contention for a knockout berth, the team rose to the occasion to come up with a brilliant team performance to beat a red-hot team which topped the group.
It was Subhranshu Senapati-led team’s farewell gift to a remarkable cricketer.
