A jubilant East Bengal team at the Eden on Monday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Calcutta: In a nail biting, finish East Bengal defeated Sporting Union by 15 runs in the CAB first division League Championship play-off final at the Eden on Monday.

Left-arm spinner Shib Sagar Singh stole the limelight on the final day as his five-wicket haul guided East Bengal to their tenth League title. In a match dominated by bowlers, Devang Gandhi’s brilliant 94 (4x11) stood out. But all his efforts went in vain as Sporting fell short of 15 runs and were bundled out for 276.

In the last ten overs, Sporting needed just 46 runs with three wickets in hand, but Shib Sagar and Ritam Kundu wrapped up the Sporting tail with eight balls remaining.

Chasing a target of 291 was always going to be tough for Sporting and they lost the first wicket in the second ball of the day with just one run on board. Opener Arindam Das failed to open his account as was trapped leg before by mediumpacer Sourav Sarkar.

Then captain Ajay Verma (45) and Devang Gandhi put on a 114 runs in a second-wicket partnership. Sporting were cruising along well and the match was poised for an early finish as Devang reached his half-century in 86 ball just before lunch.

But the century run stand was broken when Verma was caught by Amitava Chakraborty off Shib Sagar with 115 on the board in the 39th over.

Devang then accompanied by Avishek Jhunjhunwala (27) carried on the good work and were comfortably placed at 175 for two at one point.

Once Avishek was run out by East Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla Sporting collapsed in a heap. It turned out to be the turning point of the match. Shukla again struck to remove Devang, the dangerman.

After Devang’s departure, Sporting lost wickets in regular intervals. Middle-order batsman Alokendu Lahiri provided some late resistance with his 33 but that wasn’t enough to spoil East Bengal’s party.

Brief Scores

East Bengal 291 in 85 ovs. Sporting Union 276 in 83.4 ovs (Devang Gandhi 94, Ajay Verma 45; Shib Sagar Singh 5/92). East Bengal won by 15 runs.