Bihar and Bengal earn 5 points on first innings lead

The recent leg of the East Zone Under-14 Tournament matches witnessed inconclusive draws with Bihar and Bengal taking home 5 points each due to their first innings lead over Assam and Sikkim respectively.

The Bihar-Orissa encounter at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur saw the visitors, who opted to bat, scoring 268. Orissa were led from the front by skipper SI Choudhury (137) with a more than run a ball century. But the hosts in reply took a 42 run lead, scoring 310, helped along the way by a 169 run fourth wicket stand between centurion Sukhbinder Singh (104) and Arvind Jha (82).

Orissa in their second essay were bundled out for just 146 runs with S Nadeem (4 for 31) and KK Madan (3 for 46) taking the honours. Set to score 105 runs for a win Bihar were reduced to 66 for 6 after being a hopeless 16 for 3 at one stage. The match proceeded into the 15th mandatory over when the umpires called stumps.

In the other match at District Sports Council Ground in Calcutta, Sikkim, opting to bat on the opening day made 212 with A Sarin (82) being the topscorer. Bengal then took a slender 10 run lead with most of the top and middle order chipping in with useful contributions. Sikkim in their second innings were all out for 184 in 84.5 overs with opener Bimal Singh making 88. In reply , Bengal managed to score 91/5 in 41 overs.