Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Bengal beat Jharkhand by 5 wickets, Assam trounce Odisha by 6 wickets
Shreevats Goswami powered Bengal to a five-wicket win over Jharkhand and emerge zonal toppers with an all-win record, while Assam defeated Odisha by six wickets for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Kolkata: Shreevats Goswami powered Bengal to a five-wicket win over Jharkhand and emerge zonal toppers with an all-win record, while Assam defeated Odisha by six wickets to finish runners-up in the East Zone Twenty20 League for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Continuing his fine run, the Bengal opener struck nine boundaries and two sixes en route to a 53-ball 81 to lay the foundation for their 178-run chase with five balls to spare as Bengal won four wins from as many matches. In the afternoon match, all-rounder Amit Verma (3/19 and 31 from 25 balls; 2x4s, 1×6) and oepner Pallavkumar Das (51) steered Assam to a six-wicket win over Odisha with nine balls to spare as they finished the zonal league with three wins. Yusuf Pathan’s fifty goes in vain as Baroda defeat Maharashtra in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
Odisha finished with two victories, while Tripura registered a solitary win, as, according to the new format, a East Zone team would be picked for the main Inter-Zonal round. Earlier, a depleted Jharkhand, playing without Ishank Jaggi, Ishan Kishan and Shahbaz Nadeem who were representing India A in the warm-up game against Bangladesh, put up a challenging 177 for six after they were sent in to bat. Opener Virat Singh (42 from 29 balls; 9x4s) set the tone before skipper Saurabh Tiwary slammed 44 off 31 balls with two boundaries and three sixes while Pratyush Singh made 39 from 28 balls (6x4s).
Sumit Kumar (18 from 13 balls; 3x6s) and Anand Singh (16 from six balls) hammered Pragyan Ojha who leaked 21 runs in the penultimate over but it proved insufficient as Goswami made the difference to hand Jharkhand their fourth defeat in a row. In reply, Goswami took control of the chase after Wriddhiman Saha (5) missed the line and was cleaned up by Varun Aaron in the second over. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Railways beat Uttar Pradesh by 90 runs
Skipper Manoj Tiwary (4) also looked out of sorts and was holed out at deep midwicket but Goswami, who scored an unbeaten 71 against Assam, looked at ease. He shared two crucial partnerships — first 73 from 55 balls for the second wicket with Abhishek Raman (37 from 28 balls; 3x4s, 1×6) and then a quickfire 71 from 37 balls with Pramod Chandila.
Goswami, however, failed to remain unbeaten as he was caught by Pratyush Singh at cover while trying to cut Rahul Shukla uppishly. But Chandila remained calm and steered bengal home with his 21-ball 37 not out (4x4s, 1×6). Goswami totalled 202 from four matches with two half centuries and skipper Tiwary was all-praise for the lefthander. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Saha, Gambhir ensure wins for Bengal, Delhi
“This tournament has been important for us. Some players have reinvented themselves, take for instance Shreevats. The way he played was really worth the praise. A lot of people had given up on him. But the team management backed him and he has shown his merit,” the Bengal captain said.
Brief Scores
Jharkhand 177 for 6 in 20 overs (Saurabh Tiwary 44, Virat Singh 42, Pratyush Singh 39; Ashoke Dinda 2 for 28) lost to Bengal 178 for 5 in 19.1 overs (Shreevats Goswami 81, Abhishek Raman 37, Pramod Chandila 37*; Varun Aaron 2 for 41) by five wickets.
Odisha 143 for 7 in 20 overs (Biplab Samantaray 50; Amit Verma 3 for 19) lost to Assam 148 for 4 in 18.3 overs (Pallav Kumar Das 51, KB Arun Karthik 28*; Basant Mohanty 2 for 17) by six wickets.
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