Former U-19 star Ravikant Singh enters record books in a local match

Bhowanipore club fast bowlers Ravikant Singh and Geet Puri rewrote history in a CAB knock-out tournament by skittling out their opponents Taltala Ekata Sangha for a mere 33 runs in only 6.1 overs today. Both the bowlers bagged five wickets each. While Ravikant Singh finished with figures of 5/17 in 3.1 overs, Geet Puri’s figures read 5/16 in 3 overs. The match was held at the Salt Lake Videocon coaching ground. “This seems to be a record as there is no record of dismissing a team in less than 7 overs of a match in a paltry total of 33 runs,” Bhowanipore’s coach Abdul Monayem was quoted as saying by the Xtra Time.

Ravikant was part of the Indian U-19 World Cup winning squad in 2012 where he finished as the joint highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 12 wickets from 4 matches. The medium-pacer was suspended from bowling due to suspect bowling action during a U-23 match between Bengal and Tamil Nadu and the youngster lost all hopes of bowling any further. This was a comeback match for me and I am happy that I have performed well and can now draw the attention of the selectors to get a chance to play for senior Bengal team this season. I lost all hope of bowling any further and was depressed until the clearance came from the lab that I was Ok and this success has boosted my morale,” Ravikant said.

He was even sent to Chennai Bio-chemist lab to correct his bowling action. Ravikant is still awaiting his first-class debut for Bengal. Speaking on this matter Ravikant added,”After the junior World Cup success almost all cricketers of that team have made their debut in first-class cricket but I have not been able to do that. Hope to perform consistently in future to get into the side.”

Ravikant’s partner Geet Puri is a former U-16 Tamil Nadu player but had to shift his base to Kolkata with his family as his father is a Merchant Navy officer. The left arm quickie played for the DKS club in his opening year followed by Aikka Sammilani in the next year. For the last three years, Geet Puri has been playing for the Bhowanipore club with great success. Following his record-breaking spell in the match Geet said,” feeling very relaxed after the performance, this was an important match in my career. Have played against Bengal-U-23 Mumbai and Gujarat and I had to prove my metal. I thank my coach for his complete support without that it won’t have been possible for me to succeed. Looking forward to more such performances and a call in the Bengal senior team as there are a lot of Tournaments ahead.”