GUWAHATI, Oct 20 � Assam performed poorly in their opening match of the East Zone T20 Cricket Tournament for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy against Bengal.
At the Ravenshaw College ground in Cuttack today, Assam suffered a eight-wicket defeat. In reply to Assam�s paltry 99 for eight in 20 overs, Bengal smacked 100 losing two wickets in 16.5 overs.
Batting first, Assam were in dire straits losing batsmen at regular intervals. Only Deepak Sharma could withstood the accurate Bengal bowling with a solid 40 off 37 balls. Parvez Aziz (15), Dhiraj Yadav (12) and S Sriram were the only other batsmen to reach double figures.
Bengal medium pacer Shami Ahmed virtually wrecked the Assam innings with a four-wicket haul. Opener Arindam Das (41 n.o) and Shreevats Goswami (25) made the task easy for Bengal as they did not have to face any difficult situation in the initial stage. Finally, they reached the target with 3.1 overs to spare.
In the next match, Assam will play Orissa tomorrow.
scorecard
Assam: DS Jadhav c Saha b Shami Ahmed 12, P Aziz c Arindam Das b Shukla 15, S Sriram c Shami Ahmed b Saxena 10, AA Muzumdar b Shami Ahmed 1, Deepak Sharma b Shami Ahmed 40, KN Saikia c Saha b Tiwary 4, G Sharma run out (Dinda) 9, DS Goswami not out 0, RL Mali b Shami Ahmed 0, PL Das not out 4; Extras: (lb 2, w 1, nb 1) 4; Total: (8 wickets; 20 overs) 99; FoWs: 22, 2-31, 3-33, 4-47, 5-52, 6-84, 7-95, 8-95; Bowling: Dinda 4-0-16-0, Shukla 3-0-20-1, Shami Ahmed 4-0-24-4, Saxena 4-0-17-1, Tiwary 4-0-19-1, Nandi 1-0-1-0.
Bengal: SP Goswami c Jadhav b Sharma 25, Arindam Das not out 4, WP Saha c Deepak Sharma b Sharma 13, MK Tiwary not out 12; Extras: (lb 1, w 6, nb 2) 9; Total: (2 wickets; 16.5 overs) 100; FoWs: 1-54, 2-74; Bowling: PL Das 2-0-5-0, RL Mali 1-0-13-0, DS Goswami 2-0-9-0, A Konwar 4-0-23-0, S Sriram 4-0-22-0, G Sharma 3.5-0-27-2.
