Subhomoy Das is set to open

Calcutta: Bengal, having been forced to share points with Jharkhand when their opening tie was abandoned owing to unseasonal rain, are all set to go for the jugular against Tripura in the East Zone national one-day meet at Eden Gardens on Thursday.

?We will have to play for five points and not four on Thursday as this match is crucial for us,? Bengal coach Karsan Ghavri said on the match-eve. If the coach?s words are to be believed, earning a bonus point from the match seems the hosts' top agenda.

According to Ghavri, his team is at a disadvantage after the Jharkhand match was washed out. ?Had we won the first match, we could have taken it a bit lightly. I hope there is no rain tomorrow,? Ghavri said. He also indicated that middle-order batsmen Subhomoy Das will open the innings with Arindam Das.

According to another team source, the decision on finalising the XI will be taken in the morning, after seeing Tripura?s team composition.

If Tripura are found to have more left-handers in the XI, off-spinner Sourashish Lahiri may make the cut. Otherwise both left-arm spinners ? Murtaza Lodhgar and Anirban Chatterjee ? are set to make the XI.

Teams

Bengal (likely): Subhomoy Das, Arindam Das, Devang Gandhi, Rohan Gavaskar, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Deep Dasgupta, Sanjib Sanyal, Anirban Chatterjee/Sourashish Lahiri, Murtaza Lodhgar, Ranadeb Bose, Shib Shankar Paul.

Tripura (from): Tariq-ur Rehman (captain), Sujit Roy, R. Prasanna, Raj Sekhar Samwal, Manoj Kumar, Chetan Sachdev, Timir Chanda, Tushar Saha, Rajib Dutta (wicketkeeper), Dhananjoy Kumar, Sandip Banerjee, Jayanto Debnath, Rasu, Vineet Jain, Ansul Lamba.