Bengal defeats Bihar

CALCUTTA, DEC. 9. Bengal defeated Bihar by five wickets to set itself up against Orissa for the crucial match that will decide the East Zone qualifier for the Wills Trophy tournament.

In another inconsequential match, Assam defeated Tripura by 35 runs to collect its first points of the tournament.

Playing its third match at the Eden Gardens on Saturday, Bengal tallied six points from all-three-wins tie with Orissa on top of the zonal league table.

The two teams meet on Sunday to decide the qualifier.

Bihar and Assam have two points each with their wins against Tripura and play each other tomorrow. Tripura finished its campaign losing all its matches.

Bengal's seasoned left-arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee ran riot against Bihar-which decided to bat on winning the toss-claiming all the five wickets of the visitor's lower order.

Bihar was in trouble right from the start as the opening pace attack of Bengal had Lakshmi Ratan Shukla scalping the top three wickets as the visitor's score stood at nine.

Chatterjee picked up the next, lapping up the visitor's middle and lower order sparing only four runs in a span of just 5.2 overs, and saw Bihar folding up at 114.

The last six wickets of Bihar fell in a span of 7.3 overs with only four runs added. Bengal completed the run chase in 31.1 overs losing five wickets.

In the other match at CC&FC ground, the two minnows of the tournament, Assam and Tripura crossed swords. Assam scored 216 for nine in its allotted 50 overs, on being asked to bat by Tripura. Sukhvinder Singh led rear charge top scoring with 41 while Vinayak Samant and Parag Das scored 36 runs each.

Tripura's reply ended at 181 runs to have Assam gain a 35-run win. Chetan Sachdev waged the lone battle for Tripura top scoring with 76.

lBrief scores: Bihar 114 in 38.2 overs (Kunjan Sharan 48, Rajiv Kumar 36; Utpal Chatterjee five for 4, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla three for 32) lost to Bengal 115 for five in 31.1 overs, by five wickets.

Assam 216 for nine in 50 overs (Sukhvinder Singh 41, Vinayak Samant 36, Parag Das 36) bt Tripura 181 in 47.1 overs (Chetan Sachdev 76; Gautam Dutta three for 33) by 35 runs.

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