Devang played a skipper’s knock

Jamshedpur: Skipper Devang Gandhi’s scintillating 125 and Laxmi Ratan Shukla’s plucky 83 took Bengal to an 18-run victory over Bihar in Sunday’s East Zone one-dayer at Keenan Stadium.

The two added 174 off 214 balls to help Bengal recover from 19 for three and reach 260 for nine. Bihar were deducted two overs for slow bowling and could manage 242 for eight from 48 overs.

Bengal skipper Devang won the toss and his team was soon in trouble as openers Nikhil Haldipur, Arindam Das and No. 4 Subhamoy Das returned to the pavilion in the face of some fine bowling by Sumit Panda and Mihir Diwakar.

The visitors would have been in bigger trouble had Mohit Goyal not dropped Shukla at first slip off Panda. Shukla and Devang then started dominating the Bihar attack, carting them all over the park.

Devang, who completed his 50 off 60 balls, hit 17 fours in his 117-ball knock. He treated the seamers with disdain and did not hesitate to play lofted shots against the spinners.

Bihar lost Sandeep Vig in the fourth over, but M.S. Dhoni kept the scoreboard ticking with Rajiv Kumar. The two were looking good and had added 41 runs when Dhoni was unnecessarily run out.