Calcutta: Abhimanyu Easwaran (102) hit his 10th List A hundred and Shahbaz Ahmed (66 not out) delivered once again as Bengal hammered Assam by 85 runs in their Vijay Hazare Trophy group B clash in Rajkot on Saturday.
Thanks to captain Easwaran and spinner all-rounder Shahbaz, Bengal, put into bat, registered a formidable 302/7 at the Sanosara Cricket Ground B. Thereafter, courtesy Mohammed Shami (3/55) striking at key periods, Bengal bowled Assam out for 217
with 47 balls to spare, recording their third straight win in the competition.
Easwaran hit 10 boundaries in his 116-ball innings, while Shahbaz’s 57-ball
knock featured six boundaries and two sixes.
The game also marked senior batsman Anustup Majumdar’s 100th List A appearance. He scored 31 off 39 balls and forged a 68-run stand for the third wicket with Easwaran.
However, even after winning three games in a row and all of them comprehensively, Bengal remain at No.3 with 16 points from five games, just below second-placed Vidarbha, who are ahead in terms of net run rate (1.392 to Bengal’s 1.202).
Bengal face Hyderabad next on Tuesday, a game they must win for a stronger morale and mindset against group toppers Uttar Pradesh. Precisely, because of the net run rate factor, Bengal need to win both their remaining group games in order to
confirm their berth in the quarter-finals.
Losing against either Hyderabad or Uttar Pradesh will invariably bring the net run rate into play, as the situation may favour Vidarbha more as they sit higher in the standings. It’s a tricky phase for Bengal, which they need to tide over.
“The guys just need to keep their heads down and continue with the job. I don’t think there’s any need to tell them anything different at present,” head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla said later.
Coach furious
A peeved Shukla slammed the decision to not include senior pacer Shami for India’s upcoming ODIs against New Zealand, beginning on January 11.”I don’t want to say anything to anyone, but not including Shami in the (ODI) squad and continuously keeping him out even after he has been performing consistently is quite disgusting.
“It’s not doing any good to the game of cricket,” the Bengal head coach remarked.
So far in this edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Shami has picked up 11 wickets from five matches. Before that, he finished with 16 wickets from seven matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
Brief scores: Bengal 302/7 in 50 ovs (Abhimanyu Easwaran 102, Shahbaz Ahmed 66 n.o.; Rahul Singh 2/51). Assam 217 in 42.1 ovs (Mohammed Shami 3/55, Rohit Kumar 2/41). Bengal won by 85 runs.
