Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Vivek Singh slams ton as Bengal beats Jharkhand

Vivek laid a good foundation by adding 60 runs with fellow opener Shreevats Goswami (27, 28b, 3x4) and then 37 and 32 with Manoj Tiwary (12) and Shahbaz Ahmed (6) respectively.

Vivek Singh spearheaded Bengal's innings with a quickfire hundred at the top of the order.

Vivek Singh’s maiden unbeaten 100 helped Bengal record a 16-run win over Jharkhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday.

Choosing to bat, Bengal registered 161 for six and restricted Jharkhand to 145 for nine to earn its second victory. A confident Vivek took advantage of the Powerplay to display his trademark aggressive batting. The lanky southpaw, often guilty of throwing his wicket away, carried his bat through even as some reputed Bengal batsmen fell cheaply.

 

Vivek drove, cut and pulled powerfully to keep the Jharkhand bowlers under pressure. The improvisation was a new facet of Vivek’s audacious stroke play. He slammed 13 fours and three sixes to score his hundred off 64 balls. The 27-year-old laid a good foundation by adding 60 runs with fellow opener Shreevats Goswami (27, 28b, 3x4) and then 37 and 32 with Manoj Tiwary (12) and Shahbaz Ahmed (6) respectively.

Medium-pacer Monu Kumar, who captured three wickets, and Rahul Shukla, who got two, performed well in the death overs.

Cautious start

Jharkhand had a cautious start as it gathered 36 for one in the first six overs.

Captain Ishan Kishan (22, 25b, 2x4, 1x6) tried to accelerate and was caught at deep mid-wicket off off-spinner Arnab Nandi’s bowling.

As Bengal bowlers intensified pressure, Jharkhand lost a wicket apiece from 10th to 13th overs. Off-spinner Writtick Chatterjee claimed two of the wickets, including that of Virat Singh (47, 35b, 4x4, 2x6), who played some brilliant drives to the fence.

Utkarsh Singh (28, 14b, 3x4, 2x6) and Anukul Roy (18, 16b, 1x6) batted courageously but could not accomplish the task due to Bengal bowlers’ disciplined performance. Ishan Porel took three wickets.

TUESDAY'S MUSHTAQ ALI SCORES Elite A (Bengaluru): Karnataka 125/8 in 20 overs (Rohan Kadam 32, Siddarth Kaul 4/26, incl. a hat-trick) lost to Punjab 127/1 in 14.4 overs (Abhishek Sharma 30, Prabhsimran Singh 89 n.o.). Tripura 93 in 18.1 overs (Aquib Nabi 3/10) lost to Jammu & Kashmir 94/3 in 14.5 overs (Suryansh Raina 33). Uttar Pradesh 133/9 in 20 overs (Karan Sharma 55) lost to Railways 137/2 in 17.4 overs (Mrunal Devdhar 57, Shivam Chaudhary 56 n.o.). Elite B (Kolkata): Bengal 161/6 in 20 overs (Vivek Singh 100 n.o., Monu Kumar 3/30) bt Jharkhand 145/9 in 20 overs (Virat Singh 47, Ishan Porel 3/34). Hyderabad 153/8 in 20 overs (Tanmay Agarwal 34, Tilak Varma 44, Suryakant Pradhan 3/34) bt Odisha 147/4 in 20 overs (Govinda Poddar 50, Subhranshu Senapati 43 n.o., Rajesh Dhuper 30 n.o.). Elite C (Vadodara): Chhattisgarh 192/5 in 20 overs (Rishabh Tiwari 44, Shashank Chandrakar 44, Harpreet Singh 42) lost to Maharashtra 196/2 in 20 overs (Kedar Jadhav 84 n.o., Naushad Shaikh 78 n.o.). Gujarat 172/5 in 20 overs (Priyank Panchal 46, Chirag Gandhi 38 n.o., Ripal Patel 41 n.o.) bt Uttarakhand 99/8 in 20 overs (Piyush Chawla 3/12). Himachal 109 in 20 overs (Prashant Chopra 39, Lukman Meriwala 3/13, Babashafi Pathan 3/9) lost to Baroda 112/6 in 19 overs (Kedar Devdhar 49 n.o.).