Bengal win not enough for trophy

Bengal 280 for 6 (Arindam 63, Subhomoy 84, Tiwari 68*) beat Tamil Nadu 260 (Suresh 65, Ganeshkumar 64, Bose 6-35) by 20 runs
Scorecard

Bengal needed not only a victory over Tamil Nadu, but a bonus point as well, if they were to challenge Mumbai for the Ranji one-day trophy. They came out on top by a margin of 20 runs, but without the extra point, found victory a bittersweet pill.

Bengal racked up 280 for 6, as Arindam Das, Subhomoy Das, and Manoj Tewari notched up contrasting half-centuries, and Tamil Nadu's bowlers could do little to contain them. Arindam scored an 84-ball 63 and put on 51 for the second wicket with Debang Gandhi. But three wickets fell in quick succession, and Bengal found itself at 144 for 4. Das and Tewari then scored 96 runs together, until Thiru Kumaran dismissed Das for 84, with nine hits to the fence. That was Tewari's cue to turn on the heat, as he smashed 68 runs in 56 balls, aided by 6 fours and two sixes. His late battering enabled Bengal to score 40 runs off the last 20 balls of the innings. Among the bowlers, only Ramakrishnan Ramkumar was shown respect with his 10 overs costing 25 runs. To put matters into perspective, the other 40 overs went for 255 runs.

Tamil Nadu scored 260, with S Suresh and S Ganeshkumar scoring 65 and 64, but the undoubted star of the day was Ranadeb Bose, who struck down six batsmen for 35 runs.