Former Bengal medium-pacer dies

Former Bengal medium-pacer Premangsu Chatterjee, who holds the record for the best figures in an innings for an Indian in first-class cricket, died aged 83 in Kolkata on Tuesday. Chatterjee played 32 first-class matches for Bengal between 1947 and 1960, leading the side on seven occasions.

There were two major highlights in Chatterjee's career. In 1957, he took all ten wickets in an innings against Assam, bowling them out for 54 and finishing with figures of 19-11-20-10. In the previous season, he had taken 15-109 in the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Madhya Pradesh to power Bengal to the final, where they ended up losing to Bombay, despite Chatterjee's seven-wicket haul in the first innings.

Former Bengal captain Chuni Goswami, who played for Bengal soon after Chatterjee's retirement, called him an inspirational player. "He was a great swinger of the ball and a wonderful cricketer," Goswami told PTI. "His records speak for themselves. He would have been very successful if he was born in this era. It's really sad that he could not play for India because of poor backing from the state administration."