Goswami 81 guides Bengal to five-wicket win

Opener Shreevats Goswami's 53-ball 81 helped Bengal chase down 178 with five wickets to spare against Jharkhand in Kolkata. Goswami was the common factor in two half-century stands - 73 for the second wicket with Abhishek Raman, and 71 for the fourth wicket with Pramod Chandila - and he brought Bengal to within ten runs of the target by the time he was dismissed in the 18th over. Chandila, who was unbeaten on 37 off 21 balls, helped the side reach 178 with five balls to spare.

Sent in to bat, Jharkhand posted 177 for 6 riding on contributions from Saurabh Tiwary (44), Virat Singh (42) and Pratyush Singh (39), before wicketkeeper Sumit Kumar and Anand Singh added 30 off nine balls for the sixth wicket in a late burst.

Opener Pallavkumar Das' 51 off 30 balls, including eight fours and a six, helped Assam chase down 144 against Odisha in Kolkata. The result meant Assam finished second in the East Zone points table while Odisha finished third. Bengal topped the table with four wins from four matches.

Assam lost Rishav Das and Sibsankar Roy cheaply in their chase but Pallavkumar and Amit Verma put the team back on track with a 34-run partnership for the third wicket. The stand ended in the tenth over when Pallavkumar was dismissed by left-arm spinner Dhiraj Singh. Verma then added 34 with captain Arun Karthik to take the team closer to victory. By the time Verma was removed, Assam needed 31 off 30 balls and they eventually won by six wickets.

Having opted to bat, Odisha were reduced to 48 for 3 inside nine overs. Biplab Samantray, the captain, then rescued the innings with his second T20 fifty, which contained five fours and a six. When Samantray fell, Assam were 117 for 6, but a string of cameos from the lower order pushed the total to 143. Verma impressed with the ball too, picking up 3 for 19 in four overs.

Vidarbha won their second game in two days after completing a comfortable four-wicket victory against Uttar Pradesh in Jaipur. Lower-order batsmen Apoorv Wankhade (27 off 14 balls) and Shrikant Wagh (14 off 9 balls) added an unbroken 38 runs in 19 balls for the seventh wicket after Vidarbha were reduced to 133 for 6.

Having opted to bat, UP put up 169 for 4 thanks to half-centuries from opener Eklavya Dwivedi and Akshdeep Nath. Wagh was the pick of the bowlers for Vidarbha, claiming 2 for 17 in four overs. Ambati Rayudu and Ganesh Satish then laid the groundwork for the chase with thirty-somethings before the lower order sealed the deal. Nath and fast bowler Ankit Rajpoot took two wickets each for UP.

Fifties from allrounder Mahipal Lomror and wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik powered Rajasthan to 184, a total they defended by 21 runs against Railways in Jaipur.

After opting to bat, Rajasthan lost three early wickets, but Lomror and Yagnik offset the early wobble and then gave the innings muscle with a 78-run stand in 52 balls. Lomror struck seven fours and three sixes during his 65 while Yagnik hit three fours and three sixes on his way to 60, before he was the eighth Rajasthan batsman to be dismissed.

Railways started positively in their chase with opener Saurabh Wakaskar scoring 55 off 29 balls, but the middle order could not sustain the momentum, despite an unbeaten 42 off 32 balls from captain Karn Sharma. They ultimately fell short with seamers Tanvir Ul-Haq and Deepak Chahar taking two wickets each.