Diwakar's gallant all round display in vain

A gallant all round display by M Diwakar proved to be in vain as Bihar went down by five wickets to Assam in the East Zone Ranji Trophy one day match at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.

Put in to bat, Bihar were shot out for 134 in 45.3 overs. Opening bowler J Zaman, who did most of the early damage and then cleaned up the tail, finished with four for 15 off 7.3 overs. Bihar never really recovered from a bad start (23 for three) and only modest contributions from skipper Rajiv Kumar (22), Manish Kumar (23), K Sharan (21) and Diwakar (30) saw them limp to their inadequate total. Diwakar came in at No 8 and shared the best partnership of the innings - 35 for the seventh wicket with Sharan.

When Assam started their seemingly easy task, Diwakar, opening the bowling, had them in trouble by dismissing the first four batsmen with only 17 runs on the board. Skipper SZ Zuffri and S Ghosh (34) rescued Assam with a fifth wicket partnership of 56 runs off nine overs. This was followed by an unbroken sixth wicket stand of 67 runs between Zuffri and R Borah which steered Assam home with 19 overs to spare. While Zuffri faced 78 balls for his unbeaten 39, hitting five fours, the much more aggressive Borah slammed 38 not out off 47 balls with the help of two sixes and two fours. Ghosh too had wasted little time, hammering his runs off 31 deliveries and hitting seven fours. Diwakar finished with four for 33 off ten overs.