Mark Ingty took three for 28

Dhanbad: Despite the presence of former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, Bengal failed to avoid their maiden defeat in the East Zone one-dayers meet when they lost to Assam at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday.

Restricting Bengal to a meagre 151, after electing to field, Assam reached the target with two wickets to spare.

Bengal lost their first wicket when Subahmoy Das (20) was bowled by Mark Ingty. He was soon followed by Avishekh Jhunjhunwala for one with the scoreboard reading 35 for two.

Enter Sourav, who tried to keep the scoreboard ticking, before he played a loose shot and was caught by N. Bordoloi off Ingty. Sourav’s contribution was 12 of 31 balls. Bengal, at that point, were reeling on 49 for three.

After the fall of Sourav, Bengal middle-order batsmen threw their wickets barring Manoj Tewari (24) and Shiv Sagar Singh (21). None other managed to cross 20-run mark. Super Sub Kamal Hassan Mondal, who replaced Ranadeb Bose at the fall of seventh wicket, remained unbeaten on 15.

Ingty was the most successful bowler for Assam, who grabbed three wickets conceding only 28 runs in his nine overs. Mrigen Talukdar, Anand Katti and Arlen Konwar shared six wickets equally among themselves.

Chasing a target of 152, Assam too suffered two consecutive blows when Chandan Rawat and Bordoloi were sent back cheaply. Before Assam team could recover from that double jolt, J. Arun Kumar was dismissed by Bengal quick Shib Shankar Paul.

However, captain Vasant Sarvanan and Gokul Sharma took charge of the proceedings and dragged Assam close to victory with a valuable 50-run stand from 93 balls.

But both of them departed in quick succession and the match again started drifting towards Bengal. But the Assam tail enders managed to have the last laugh.

At the beginning of the 49th over, Assam were required to score four runs for victory and Anand Katti managed to hit the fence off a Sourav delivery to pull-off a much-desired victory for Assam.

While talking to media person, Assam skipper Sarvanan credited the success to the whole team. “We have managed to win the match against Bengal and it’s a real moral booster for us,” said Sarvanan.

Now, a straight-forward win in their last match against Orissa on Sunday will take Bengal to the next stage.