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Assam record historic victory

By Sports reporter

GUWAHATI, Nov 18 - Assam scripted history in Ranji Trophy defeating seven time champions Delhi.

On the final day of the four-day Group A match at the Barsapara cricket stadium here today, the hosts recorded a five-wicket win against the table leaders.

With this outright victory Assam leapfrogged to second spot with 22 points in the nine-team group behind Delhi, 24 points. However, Assam still has two matches to play while Delhi has one. Vidarbha also gathered 22 points from seven matches while Karnataka at the fourth place after Vidarbha with 21 points from six matches. Bengal is at the fifth spot with 19 points from six outings. Top four teams will qualify for the knock-out stage.

On the final day today, Assam team was requiring 95 runs with seven wickets in hand. Two overnight unbeaten batsmen Rahul Hazarika and KB Arun Karthik started with a positive note after the day�s proceedings were delayed by 45 minutes. Rahul, who was playing his second Ranji match, showed class and played a matured innings. He contributed most valuable 59 off 132 balls. He hit five boundaries staying 240 minutes at the crease. Rahul and Arun Karthik added 83 runs for the fourth wicket which virtually laid the foundation of Assam�s convincing victory. Arun remained unbeaten with 55 facing 97 balls. J Syed Mohammad was the other not out batsman with 15.

Today the lunch break was taken 15 minutes later and Arun smacked the winning run off the last ball hitting Manan Sharma to the mid wicket region for four. Apart from Rahul, skipper Gokul Sharma was the other batsman out today.

Assam captain Gokul Sharma after the historic victory said it was a result of perfect team work. All the players contributed to their best ability. Despite losing ace bowlers Arup Das and Sarupam Purkayastha mid way through the game, others applied themselves perfectly and cornered the opponent in all departments. Gokul said, they have been able to bundle their fancied opponent twice within 200 and that was the most positive point of the match. He further revealed that they will try for full points in their next match against Maharashtra, at Pune from November 23, who are at seventh spot with 10 points from six matches.

Earlier Delhi defeated Assam in 2010 at Delhi by seven wickets in their first Ranji Trophy meeting.

Assam team against Maharashtra: Gokul Sharma �, KB Arun Karthik (VC), Tarjinder Singh, Abu Nechim Ahmed, J Syed Mohammad, Amit Verma, Rahul Hazarika, Pallav Das, Washiqur Rahman (WK), Krishna Das, Pritom Das, Sib Sankar Roy, Amit Sinha, Dhiraj Goswami, Bikash Chetry.

SCORECARD

Delhi 1si innings 149

Assam 1st innings 157

Delhi 2nd innings 172

Assam 2nd innings (Overnight70/3): Pallav Das c Manan Sharma b Saini 5, Rahul Hazarika c sub (P Negi) b Awana 59, Sarupam Purkayastha b Sangwan 0, Amit Verma c Gambhir b Manan Sharma 11, KB Arun Karthik not out 55, Gokul Sharma c Gambhir b Manan Sharma 0, J Syed Mohammad not out 15; Extras: (b 8, lb 8, w 1, nb 6) 23; Total: (5 wickets; 56 overs) 168. Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-11, 3-53, 4-136, 5-137. Bowling: PJ Sangwan 17-4-35-1, NA Saini 10-0-32-1, P Awana 11-4-15-1, P Narang 5-1-17-0, N Rana 2-2-0-0, Manan Sharma 10-1-51-2, Milind Kumar 1-0-2-0.

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