Bihar decimated for 85

Hosts Assam took a stranglehold of the proceedings in their East Zone Ranji Trophy clash against Bihar at the Tinsukia District Sports Association Ground on Friday. After Bihar were trundled out for 85, the Assamese overhauled their tally before the day was out, but not before losing their entire top-order in the process, closing at 122/5.

The visitors won the toss and elected to take first strike, only to lose Nikhilesh Ranjan to the second ball of the match, bowled by Gautam Dutta. For good measure, Dutta in his third over also toppled the stumps of the other opener Mohinder Singh Dhoni. Bihar never recovered from that horror start as the other opening bowler Javed Zaman got into the act, collecting the next three scalps. The Bihar middle order crumbled from 45/3 to 46/6 in the space of three overs. Sukhbinder Singh proceeded to finish off the tail, terminating the innings for 85 in the 43rd over, but it was Zaman who collected the best figures of 4/39. In an innings that contained five ducks, onedrop Aamir Hashmi's 27 was top-score.

Assam openers PK Das and SB Saikia knocked off forty for the first wicket inside ten overs. A series of setbacks from thereon impeded further progress as four wickets tumbled in quick succession to leave the hosts at 69/4, Kunjan Saran and Nikhilesh Ranjan sharing the four wickets equally between them. Rajesh Bora and Ganesh Kumar added 45 for the fifth wicket before Bihar pulled back a late wicket when the former was stumped for 33. With fifteen overs remaining, the match was suspended at 4.07 pm due to bad light, Assam holding a 37 run advantage with five wickets in hand.