GUWAHATI, Oct 20 � In the opening match of East Zone T20 cricket tournament for the Sayed Mustaq Ali Trophy, defending champions Bengal handed a 36-run drubbing to Assam.
At Keenan Stadium, Jamshedpur today, electing to bat first, Bengal posted 131 for five in 20 overs and shot out Assam for 93 in 16.1 overs.
On a tricky wicket, Bengal captain Wridhiman Saha decided to use the track first and crawled to a total which never seemed to be a big one. Subhamay Das was their top scorer with 36 off 42 balls while opener Anustup Mazumdar contributed a quickfire 28 off 23 deliveries.
Assam pacer Abu Nechim Ahmed and spinner Gokul Sharma were quite economical as they gave away 18 and 15 runs respectively in their quota of four overs. Abu got the wicket of Debabrata Das who scored 23 from 19 balls.
Chasing the target Assam batsmen run through poor form and started losing wickets at regular intervals from initial stage. Leading batsmen like Dhiraj Jadhav (10), Parvez Aziz (0), Rajagopal Satish (13), Gokul Sharma (1), Tarjinder Singh (2) miserably failed to show their touches. Golvesman Kunal Saikia top scored with 30 off 20 balls with two sixes and as many boundaries.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Iresh Saxena was the main strike bowler for Bengal with three scalps each while Arnab Nandi came out with two wickets.
SCORECARD
Bengal: AP Majumdar c Tarjinder Singh b Sathish 28, AA Jhunjhunwala c Saikia b Das 6, SG Das not out 36, WP Saha c Sathish b Tarjinder Singh 17, DB Das c Tarjinder Singh b Ahmed 23, LR Shukla b Das 2, AA Nandi not out 1. Extras: (w 16, nb 2) 18. Total: (5 wickets; 20 overs) 131. Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-55, 3-88, 4-123, 5-129. Bowling: AN Ahmed 4-0-18-1, DS Goswami 2-0-26-0, PL Das 3-0-22-2, G Sharma 4-0-15-0, R Sathish 3-0-22-1, Tarjinder Singh 4-0-28-1.
Assam: DS Jadhav c Dinda b Shukla 10 PK Debnath c & b Shukla 14, P Aziz b Nandi 0, AS Sinha run out (Jhunjhunwala) 7, R Sathish c DB Das b Saxena 13, G Sharma c Jhunjhunwala b Nandi 1, Tarjinder Singh lbw b Shukla 2, KN Saikia b Saxena 30, DS Goswami not out 10, PL Das b Saxena 0, AN Ahmed b Dinda 1. Extras: (lb 1, w 4) 5. Total: (all out; 16.1 overs) 93. Fall of wickets:1-27, 2-27, 3-29, 4-37, 5-38, 6-45, 7-68, 8-83, 9-83, 10-93. Bowling: AB Dinda 2.1-0-9-1, Shami Ahmed 2-0-11-0, SS Mondal 2-0-17-0, LR Shukla 4-0-20-3, AA Nandi 3-0-22-2, I Saxena 3-0-13-3.
