GUWAHATI, Oct 15 - After Delhi it was Team Rajasthan�s turn to take revenge of last year�s defeat on Assam in the Ranji Trophy match. In the Group B encounter at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam today, Team Rajasthan handed an innings and 8-run defeat to Assam on the third day of the four-day match.
Taking a 77-run first innings lead, the Rajasthan bowlers showed devastating form and skittled out Assam for a scanty total of 69 in just 20.2 overs. Skipper Pankaj Singh and Aniket Choudhary were enough to wipe out Assam second innings capturing four and five wickets respectively. Abu Nechim Ahmed was retired not out.
Assam bowlers did well in the morning session removing the remaining seven Rajasthan wickets spending 64 runs as the team was out for 272 after resuming at the overnight total of 208 for three.
Arup Das was the chief wicket taker with four victims while Krishna Das took three.
But the Assam batsmen continued their poor form and found the Rajasthan pacers tough to face. Half of the Assam batsmen returned to the pavilion before opening their account while Rishav Das remained top scorer with 16. Arup Das (14) and Abu Nechim Ahmed (13) were the only batsmen to reach double figure. Assam, last year�s semifinalist, suffered two back to back innings defeat this season and it is high time for the think tank of the Assam team to plan for the coming matches.
The batsmen in particular are in poor shape. Skipper Gokul Sharma scored just 9 runs in four innings and more interestingly in last three innings he even failed to open his account. In four innings only three batsmen, Rishav Das, Tarjinder Singh and J Syed Mohammad could hit 50s. It distinctly proves that on neutral venues Assam batsmen find it tough in countering the opponent bowlers.
SCORECARD
Assam 1st innings: 195
Rajasthan 1st innings (overnight 208/3): MK Lomror lbw b Ahmed 89, R Bhatia lbw b AK Das 28, SS Dobal lbw b AK Das 4, CD Bist b AK Das 3, K Ajay Singh not out 22, A Choudhary c Syed Mohammad b K Das 7, Pankaj Singh c Amit Verma b K Das 10, NB Singh c Arun Karthik b K Das 7; Extras: (b 17, lb 6, nb 1) 24. Total (all out; 105.4 overs): 272. Fall of wickets: 4-208, 5-212, 6-218, 7-232, 8-249, 9-259, 10-272. Bowling: Arup Das 26-8-53-4, Krishna Das 25.4-12-50-3, Abu Nechim Ahmed 22-5-67-2, Pallav Das 13-5-21-1, J Syed Mohammad 5-0-14-0, Gokul Sharma 8-1-24-0, Amit Verma 6-1-20-0.
Assam 2nd innings: Pallav Das c Bist b Choudhary 0, Rahul Hazarika c Menaria b Pankaj Singh 0, Rishav Das b Choudhary 16, Amit Verma b Choudhary 0, KB Arun Karthik lbw b Choudhary 0, Abu Nechim Ahmed not out 13, Tarjinder Singh lbw b Pankaj Singh 4, Gokul Sharma b Choudhary 0, J Syed Mohammad run out 7, Arup Das b Pankaj Singh, Krishna Das c & b Pankaj Singh 7. Extras: (lb 8) 8. Total (all out; 20.2 overs): 69. Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-9, 3-9, 4-9, 4-9 (Abu, retired not out), 5-16, 6-17, 7-26, 8-49, 9-49, 10-69. Bowling: Pankaj Singh 10.2-4-26-4, A Choudhary 10-3-35-5.
