Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Riyan Parag, Pritam Das shine as Assam beats Bengal

Newly-appointed captain Riyan Parag’s excellent all-round performance and medium-pacer Pritam Das’ three-wicket haul propelled Assam to a 13-run win over Bengal.

Riyan Parag’s all-round performance helped Asaam beat Bengal: File Picture

Newly-appointed captain Riyan Parag’s excellent all-round performance and medium-pacer Pritam Das’ three-wicket haul propelled Assam to a 13-run win over Bengal in an Elite group B match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 cricket tournament at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday.

Inserted in, Assam posted a challenging 157 for five and stopped Bengal at 144 for eight to ensure its second win. Assam lost Rishav Das and Pallav Das (20, 11b, 4x4) to Ishan Porel inside three overs. Parag (77 n.o., 54b, 5x4, 5x6) and Denish Das (34, 36b, 2x4, 1x6) combined well to gather 76 runs.

Parag played some power-packed shots to the boundary on either side. He ran well with Denish to take Assam to a decent position. Later, Parag joined forces with Erik Roy (19 n.o., 12b, 3x4) to collect 57 runs in the last five overs.

 

Falling sideways

In reply, Bengal had another brisk start thanks to the attacking approach of its openers Vivek Singh (21, 14b, 3x4, 1x6) and Shreevats Goswami (16, 10b, 3x4).

Goswami was caught behind while trying a late cut off Mukhtar Hussain and Vivek was held at long-off off Parag in successive overs inside the Powerplay.

The seasoned duo of captain Anustup Majumdar (48 n.o., 47b, 4x4) and Manoj Tiwary (33, 22b, 3x4, 2x6) rotated the strike and punished the loose deliveries to add 64 runs at a good pace.

Parag broke the stand as Tiwary, who showed his aggression and hit two lovely sixes down the ground, skied one to point in the 13th over. The dismissals of Shahbaz Ahmed (13) and Suvankar Bal to Pritam Das in the 18th over, turned the game around for Assam.

Writtick Chatterjee and Akash Deep fell in the 19th over and Prayas Ray Barman, claimed by Pritam, in 20th as the home team wilted under pressure.

All brief scores:  Elite A (Bengaluru): Tripura 122/6 in 20 overs (Milind Kumar 48) lost to Uttar Pradesh 123/1 in 13.1 overs (Karan Sharma 68 n.o., Suresh Raina 36 n.o.). Railways 152/5 in 20 overs (Pratham Singh 41, Shivam Chaudhary 48, Harsh Tyagi 33 n.o.) lost to Karnataka 158/8 in 19.4 overs (Devdutt Padikkal 37, Aniruddha Joshi 64 n.o., Pradeep Poojar 3/19, Dhrushant Soni 3/28). Jammu & Kashmir 139/8 in 20 overs (Shubham Pundir 42, Siddarth Kaul 4/33) lost to Punjab 140/0 in 14.3 overs (Abhishek Sharma 59 n.o., Prabhsimran Singh 73 n.o..). Elite B (Kolkata): Hyderabad 152/7 in 20 overs (Pragnay Reddy 30, B. Sandeep 41) lost to Tamil Nadu 155/3 in 19.3 overs (N. Jagadeesan 78 n.o., Dinesh Karthik 40 n.o.). Assam 157/5 in 20 overs (Denish Das 34, Riyan Parag 77 n.o.) bt Bengal 144/8 in 20 overs (Anustup Majumdar 48 n.o., Manoj Tiwary 33, Pritam Das 3/27). Jharkhand 182/4 in 20 overs (Virat Singh 67, Ishan Kishan 60) beat Odisha 128 all out in 20 overs (Gourav Choudhary 36, Govinda Poddar 28, Bal Krishna 4/21) Elite C (Vadodara): Uttarakhand 128/6 in 20 overs (Jay Bista 30, Pankaj Jaiswal 4/15) lost to Himachal 130/0 in 15.4 overs (Abhimanyu Rana 72 n.o., Prashant Chopra 54 n.o.). Baroda 158/4 in 20 overs (Kedar Devdhar 99 n.o.) bt Maharashtra 98 in 16.5 overs (Naushad Shaikh 32, Atit Sheth 4/17, Ninad Rathva 3/21). Chhattisgarh 63/3 in 5 overs lost to Gujarat 64/2 in 3.4 overs (Ripal Patel 32). Match restricted to five-overs-a-side due to wet outfield.