A queue for tickets at Eden Gardens on Friday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Tickets for the April 29 Eden showdown between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Mumbai Indians disappeared at T20 speed on Friday, angering fans who had queued up for hours and returned empty-handed.

The scene was a repeat of Thursday’s chaos, when police chased out fans who had questioned how all the low-priced tickets could be sold out within half an hour of the counters opening.

Most of those who stood in the heat till the counters closed had nothing to show for the trouble they took. Some opted for tickets priced higher than their original choices but got only one each.

Black marketeers were in action not far from the counters, luring those who were moving out of the queues and looking elsewhere for tickets.

Police have arrested at least 22 people, including two women, since Thursday for selling tickets at higher prices. Among the distraught faces at the end of the day were Asansol resident Sandip Bhattacharya and his brother.

“We have watched matches (at the Eden) before but it has never been so bad,” Sandip said.

Officials of Indian Bank, in charge of distributing tickets, agreed.

“On Thursday, the organisation handling ticketing — Ticketpro — handed us 1,000 tickets each in the Rs 110 and Rs 200 category and they were sold out in an hour. On Friday, they gave us just 600 tickets priced at Rs 325, and 600 in the Rs 655 category,” one of them said.

Fearing trouble, bank officials procured 400 tickets priced Rs 325 each from the quota for CAB-affiliated clubs.

An executive of Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, the franchise that owns the Knight Riders, said there would be no more trouble over tickets. “We are bringing tickets from other places.”