Bengal bounce back with big win

East Zone
Points table

Bengal bounced back from a shock defeat to Assam to thrash Orissa by 154 runs at Dhanbad in their last league match of the East Zone phase. Subhomoy Das (56), Deep Dasgupta (55), Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (84) and Manoj Tiwary (51) each cashed in on some wayward bowling to post fifties and take Bengal to an imposing 298 for 8. In response, Orissa limped their way to 144 in 30.2 overs, with Laxmi Ratan Shukla (3 for 3) and Sanjib Sanyal (3 for 32) doing the damage. With this win, Bengal have progressed into the knockout round to be contested in Uttar Pradesh from March 10.

Anshuman Raj and Gurjeet Singh bowled Jharkhand to a 61-run win over Assam and booked their side a spot in the next round of matches. Raj, sharing the new ball responsibilities, knocked off the first three Assam batsman before Gurjeet spun out four down the order - including the wicket of top-scorer Sathiamoorty Saravanan (66) - as Jharkhand folded for 173. Jharkhand's total of 234 for 9 was down to vital knocks from Chandra Mohan Jha (57) and MM Tantubhai (40).