Picture Credit: Twitter
The semifinals of the 2021/22 Ranji Trophy are underway in Alur and Bengaluru. While Bengal and Madhya Pradesh are locking horns at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh are facing each other at the Just Cricket Academy Ground in Bengaluru. Madhya Pradesh are currently leading Bengal by more than 100 runs in the 1st semifinal.
However, it could have been worse for Bengal had Manoj Tiwary not stepped up and scored a century. Madhya Pradesh put on 341 in their first innings on the back of a brilliant 165 from their wicketkeeper batter Himanshu Mantri. Meanwhile, Bengal lost two wickets in the very first over reducing them to 0-2. It kept getting worse from bad as Bengal batters kept walking back to the pavilion one after the other. Shortly, Bengal were reduced to 54/5 within the first 16 overs.
It was then Manoj Tiwary stepped up and played a gem of an inning to bail his team out of trouble. He found a really able partner in Shahbaz Ahmed who also crossed the three-figure mark. The two Bengal batters put on a 183-run stand for the sixth wicket before Manoj Tiwary departed with 102 (211) against his name. Nonetheless, Tiwary had done a tremendous job and earned a lot of praise for his batting heroics.
But rather than his innings, it was his century celebration that caught attention. After reaching the 100-run mark, Tiwary took out a paper from his pocket. He then unfolded it and raised it towards his family. After the cameras were zoomed on it, a beautiful message for his family could be seen written on the paper. “I Love You Susmita (My Sweetypiee),” were the words on the special note.
Notably, Manoj Tiwary had also played two really good innings in the quarterfinal. He had scored 73 and 136 in the first and second innings respectively against Jharkhand.