Bengal and Orissa settle for a draw

The Orissa-Bengal East Zone under-14 Tournament match at the Engineering School Ground in Cuttack meandered to a tame draw on the third and final day on Thursday. Bengal by virtue of the 157 run first innings lead earned 5 points while Orissa had to be content with three.

Bengal in their second innings got to face just 10 overs in which they scored 22 runs for the loss of opener Arindam Ghosh (7). The other opener Rohan Bannerjee (7) along with Avishek Bhowmick (6) were unbeaten when stumps were drawn on the final day.

Opener N Dash (45) along with NC Mohanty (5) gave a sedate start for the Orissa first innings by adding 28 runs in 5.5 overs. Then Dash added 38 runs with S Patnaik (18) for the second wicket in 8.3 overs. Resuming at 77 for 4 on the final day, Orissa lost three further wickets. Then Sambit Rout (32) and Bharat Prakash Samal (39) added 70 runs for the eighth wicket to lend some respectability to the Orissa total. But after their fall the Orissa innings folded up at the score of 205. S Pearuddin (5 for 46) was the most successful bowler for Bengal.

Earlier put into bat on the opening day, Bengal ran up a huge 362. Opener Arindam Ghosh top scored with 69. The Bengal middle order then chipped in with a solid batting display. The chief contributors being S Mukherjee (37), S Peeruddin (29), P Dutta (43), S Gond (33) and skipper Himadri Pal (44).