Kolkata, Jan 16 (SocialNews.XYZ) Assam's talented Riyan Parag put up a fine all-round show to guide his team to a 13-run win over Bengal in an Elite B match of the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Eden Gardens here on Saturday. Parag first played a captain's knock of 54-ball 77 not out and then bagged two wickets with his leg-spinners to help his team to victory.
Coming in to bat at No.4, after Assam had lost two wickets for 22, Parag (5x5s, 5x6s) conjured up a 76-run partnership for the third wicket with Denish Das (34 off 36 balls, 2x4s, 1x6) to take Assam to 157 for five wickets in 20 overs. Parag was aided by a floored chance, but he did some big hitting and spared none of the Bengal bowlers as he beautifully paced his innings to prop up the total.
For Bengal, pacer Ishan Porel bagged two wickets.
In reply, Bengal failed to match Assam and were restricted to 144 for eight wickets in 20 overs, despite captain Anustup Majumdar's 47-ball 48 not out (4x4s). Manoj Tiwary chipped in with a 22-ball 33, but the others let the team down. For Assam, pacer Pritam Das captured a three-wicket haul and Parag bagged two.
Bengal began the chase in a familiar fashion, with Shreevats Goswami and Vivek Singh finding boundaries at ease. But they perished to poor shots, for 16 and 21 respectively, letting go of any advantage that the home team had. Skipper Majumdar held on to one end but found no support from the others, barring Tiwary.
"It was a bad day at work. We floundered in every department. But the team will pick itself up and fight in the last match. We are not giving up hope for qualifying," Anustup said after the game.
Bengal are now placed second in the group with 12 points from four matches while Tamil Nadu are in the lead with 16 points from four matches, all of which they have won, including one against Hyderabad on Saturday.
In the other Elite B match of the day, Narayan Jagadeesan (78 not out) continued his dominating form with the willow as he smashed unbeaten 78 to power Tamil Nadu to a seven-wicket win against Hyderabad.
Electing to bat first, Hyderabad amassed 152/7, riding on B Sandeep's 36-ball 41, while Jagadeesan along with skipper Dinesh Karthik finished at 155/3 to win the match with three balls left to play.
For Hyderabad Baba Aparajith, Murugan Aswin and Sandeep Warrier bagged two wickets apiece while earlier Pragnay Reddy gave Hyderabad a good start with 23-ball 30.
While chasing the target Jagadesaan scored 78 off 51 balls and Karthik remained unbeaten on 40 (30 balls) as Tamil Nadu made it four wins in a row.
Brief scores:
Elite A (in Bengaluru):
Jammu and Kashmir: 139/8 wkts in 20 overs (Shubham Pundir 42, Qamran Iqbal 27; Siddhart Kaul 4/33) lost to Punjab 140/0 wkts in 14.3 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 73 not out, Abhishek Sharma 59 not out) by 10 wickets with 33 balls remaining
Railways: 152/5 wkts in 20 overs (Shivam Chaudhary 48, Pratham Singh 41; Prasidh Krishna 2/25) lost to Karnataka 158/5 wkts in 19.4 overs (Aniruddha Joshi 64, Devdutt Padikkal 37; T Pradeep 3/19) by two wickets with two balls remaining
Tripura: 122/6 wkts in 20 overs (Milind Kumar 48; Shanu Saini 2/16) lost Uttar Pradesh 123/1 wkt in 13.1 overs (Karan Sharma 68 not out, Suresh Raina 36 not out) by nine wickets with 41 balls remaining
Elite B (in Kolkata)
Hyderabad 152/7 wkts in 20 overs (Bavanaka Sandeep 41, Pragnay Reddy 30; Baba Aparijith 2/22) lost to Tamil Nadu 155/3 wkts in 19.3 overs (Narayan Jagadeesan 78 not out, Dinesh Karthik 40 not out) by seven wickets with three balls remaining
Assam: 157/5 wkts in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 77 not out, Denish Das 34;) beat Bengal 144/8 wkts in 20 overs (Anustup Majumder 48 not out, Manoj Tiwary 33; Pritam Das 3/27) by 13 runs
Jharkhand: 182/4 wkts in 20 overs (Virat Singh 67, Ishan Kishan 60) beat Odisha 128 all out in 17.5 overs (Gourav Choudhary 36, Govinda Poddar 28; Bal Krishna 4/21) by 54 runs
Elite C (in Vadodara)
Uttarakhand 128/6 wkts in 20 overs (Jay Bista 30, Karn Kaushal 27; Pankaj Jaswal 4/15) lost to Himachal Pradesh 130/0 wkts in 15.4 overs (Abhimanyu Rana 72 not out, Prashant Chopra 54 not out) by 10 wickets with 26 balls remaining
Baroda 158/4 wkts in 20 overs (Kedar Devdhar 99 not out, Vishnu Solanki 28; Satyajeet Bachav 1/15) beat Maharashtra 98 all out in 16.5 overs (Naushad Sheikh 32; Atit Seth 4/17, Ninad Rathva 3/21) by 60 runs
Chattisgarh 63/3 wkts in five overs (Vishal Kushwah 20 not out, Harpreet Singh 14; Piyush Chawla 2/10) lost to Gujarat 64/2 wkts in 3.4 overs (Ripal Patel 32, Dhruv Raval 19 not out) by eight wickets with eight balls remaining
Source: IANS
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