A Bengal batsman attempts a glance at Luwangpokpa Cricket Stadium in Imphal on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, Nov. 30: A fine 133-run knock from skipper Vivek Singh helped Bengal pile up 314 runs in their first innings against Manipur on the first day of the three-day Vijay Merchant Trophy under-16 east zone tournament match played at Luwangpokpa Cricket Stadium here today.

Earlier in the day, Manipur won the toss and put the visitors to bat first in serene weather conditions.

The Bengal innings was largely dependent on skipper Vivek Singh, who during his knock of 133, slammed 22 fours and three sixes. He was earlier dropped at 99 but was finally dismissed by Jitender Thakur with a magnificent yorker in the 41.2 over.

The other notable Bengal contributors were Arjun Barman (29), Soumyajit Karmakar (28), Prateek Sarkar (23) and Writtick Chatterjee (21).

For Manipur, P. Satyajit Singh was the most successful bowler having hauled five wickets for 48 runs from 14.4 overs while Jitender Thakur took scalped three for 53. L. Robert Roy and S. Deepak Singh picked up one wicket each. The Manipur bowlers conceded 46 runs as extras.

In reply, to the Bengal innings of 314 runs, Manipur batsman had a disastrous opening as both the openers were dismissed cheaply with Md Shahadat trapped lbw for a duck while his fellow opener Ak. Tenyson was out for only 7 runs. Md Sultan and Th. Gelson Singh were on the crease when the stumps were drawn with the home side scoring 14 for two with 13 overs being bowled for the day.