Vijay Hazare Trophy: Chandigarh stuns Bengal, wins by five wickets

Chandigarh rode on Arslan Khan and Shivam Bhambri’s brilliant fifties to stun host Bengal by five wickets in the Elite Group E Vijay Hazare Trophy match at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.

Bengal, asked to bat, managed 253 for nine. Chandigarh, which got promoted from Plate Group and upset Haryana in its first match, achieved the target in 48.5 overs.

Chandigarh bowlers kept it tight and three Bengal batsmen, including Shreevats Goswami (35, 51b, 5x4), perished inside 15 overs in their attempt to break the shackles.

READ| Vijay Hazare Trophy: Samarth's unbeaten 158 powers Karnataka to big win against Bihar

Abhimanyu Easwaran (35, 38b, 3x4) added 41 with Kaif Ahmed (20).

Shahbaz Ahmed (59, 66b, 4x4, 2x6), who pulled spectacularly in his maiden fifty, and Writtick Chatterjee (29, 40b, 1x4) gathered 77 vital runs. The two got out in the 44th over.

The tail-enders, including Akash Deep (25 n.o., 13b, 1x4, 2x6), contributed 49 in the last five to ensure a fighting total.

Spinners Gaurav Gambhir, Bipul Sharma and Gurinder Singh took two wickets each.

Chandigarh replied strongly with its openers, Arslan (88, 95b, 9x4) and captain Manan Vohra (45, 68b, 3x4), collecting 126 runs sensibly.
 

READ| Umesh Yadav joins India's Test squad after clearing fitness test

Left-handed Arslan drove and cut beautifully to get his maiden half-century.

Following the departure of Vohra and Arslan, Bhambri (71 n.o., 74b, 7x4, 1x6) and Ankit Kaushik (35, 47b, 2x6) batted patiently to get 81 runs.

Chandigarh lost two wickets to Akash in the 46th over and one more in the next.

However, Bhambri hung in there to score the winning runs.