Vijay Hazare Trophy: Bengal beat Assam; Odisha enter knockouts

Already assured of a place in the knock-out stage, Bengal rode on opener Shreevats Goswami's fluent 133 to beat Assam by 18 runs in a high-scoring East Zone match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, in Kolkata on Saturday.

Opting to bat, Goswami smashed 133 off 135 balls with the help of 14 fours and three sixes Manoj Tiwary made a steady 57 off 71 balls to help Bengal amass 312 for the loss of six wickets.

Apart from Goswami and Tiwary, Sudip Chatterjee (35) and skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla (36) were the other notable contributors for Bengal.

Off-spinner Swarupam Purkayastha scalped two wickets for 58 for Assam.

In reply, skipper Dheeraj Jadhav and Parvez Aziz put on 118 runs for the opening stand to keep Assam in the hunt.

But once the partnership broke, it became difficult for Assam to overwhelm the stiff target and the visitors finally ended at 294 for eight.

Medium pacer Sayan Mondal (4/59) was the wrecker-in-chief for Bengal with a four-wicket haul.

Bengal have already secured a place in the quarterfinals before the match and have finished the East Zone leg on top with full 16 points from four games.

Brief Scores:

Bengal: 312 for six wickets in 50 overs (Sreevats Goswami 133, Manoj Tiwary 57; Swarupam Purkayastha 2/58).

Assam: 294 for eight in 50 overs (Dheeraj Jadhav 115, Parvez Aziz 52; Sayan Mondal 4/59).

Odisha enter knockouts on net run-rate

Owing to their better net-run-rate, Odisha progressed to the knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy despite faltering in their last league match against Jharkhand, going down by 45 runs in Kolkata.

Put in to bat, Jharkhand scored 280 for five in their allotted 50 overs and then managed to bundle out Odisha for 235 in 46.5 overs.

Jharkhand lost three early wickets to be at 73 for three before Kumar Deobrat (73) and Virat Singh (67) scored half-centuries and added 130 runs for the fourth wicket.

Thereafter Ishank Jaggi, who scored an unbeaten 47 off just 19 balls, along with Shahbaz Nadeem (23 not out) lifted the team to 280.

Odisha's Paresh Patel was the highest wicket-taker with figures of three for 52.

In reply, Odisha lost four wickets for 67 runs before Biplab Samantray (61), Arabind Singh (40) and Abhilash Mallick (50) hit crucial runs and put on a couple of important partnerships to take the team past 200-run mark.

But after the dismissal of these three, none of the lower order batsmen could sustain and Odisha fell short in the end.

For Jharkhand, Rahul Shukla (4/48) and Jaskaran Singh (3/53) shared seven wickets between them.

Brief scores:

Jharkhand: 280 for five in 50 overs (Kumar Deobrat 73, Virat Singh 67; Paresh Patel 3/52).

Odisha: 235 all out in 46.5 overs (Biplab Samantray 61, Abhilash Mallick 50; Rahul Shukla 4/48, Jaskaran Singh 3/53).