Left Railways job to play for Bengal, says Majumdar

Bengal's saviour in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal and semifinal, Anustup Majumdar had left a secured Indian Railways job to play cricket for his home state, and says he is not short of motivation at 35.

Despite not playing all the matches this season, the batsman has been instrumental in Bengal's march into the semifinals.

On Saturday, he scored an unbeaten 120, his second century on the trot, to lift Bengal to 275 for nine from a precarious 67 for six in their semifinal against a star-studded Karnataka.

"You never know what is in store for you tomorrow. I left my job to play cricket. I never thought of quitting cricket," Majumdar said after his knock.

Majumdar left Railways in 2016 following a string of inconsistent outings for his employers.

In the ongoing season, Majumdar scored two half-centuries -- 99 and 59 -- in crunch games against Delhi and Hyderabad.

"Cricket is a game of uncertainty. It takes one ball to get you out. I just kept working hard, kept motivating myself. There was no other motivation. Maybe I've matured now and the sense of grief and frustration have lessened," the team's senior-most member said.

Majumdar stitched two fruitful partnership lower down the order, adding 72 runs with Shahbaz Ahmed, which was followed by an entertaining 103-stand with Akash Deep (44).

He gave credit to Shahbaz for his support.

"When I was inside the dressing room, I was making a plan for each bowler and assessing their line and lengths. It helped, but the real success came after Shahbaz came in.

"The match opened up after he came to bat. He struck some exquisite boundaries against good balls and my game also became easy.

"His innings gave me confidence that even I could play my shots. We started playing attacking game. It became the turning point for us."