CUTTACK, FEB 28,
Wriddhiman Saha was in full flow as Bengal amassed 234 against Arunachal Pradesh in their Mushtaq Ali Trophy match .
The wicketkeeper-batsman, making a comeback, opened the innings. His 129 came off just 62 balls and contained 16 fours and four sixes. Vivek Singh then smashed 49 off just 18 deliveries with five fours and three sixes. Arunachal was restricted to 127 for four in reply.
Karnataka was stretched only for the second time — it narrowly escaped against Assam — in the tournament but held its nerve to eke out a four-wicket win against Chhattisgarh.
Counterattack
Vinay Kumar’s brilliant counterattacking 34 off 13 balls, studded with four sixes, was aided by cameos from J. Suchith and Abhimanyu Mithun as Karnataka chased down the total with four balls to spare. Unlike in their previous matches, Karnataka openers Mayank Agarwal and Rohan Kadam started cautiously in reply to a total of 171.
The scoreboard pressure told when Kadam, in an attempt to break the shackles, offered a simple chance at mid-wicket off Vishal Singh.
Vishal had his second two overs later when Mayank squandered a start for the third time in a row, getting caught at third-man for 21.
Aishwary Marya then snapped up in-form Manish Pandey and R. Sharath in the ninth over to leave Karnataka reeling at 57 for four. Karun Nair added 52 with Suchith for the fifth wicket but with Karun adjudged lbw off Shubham Singh, the match swung in Chhattisgarh’s favour briefly but Karnataka’s lower middle-order had other plans.
Bhatia makes merry
Earlier, Chhattisgarh chose to bat first under heavy overcast conditions. But the move backfired as Karnataka’s new-ball pair of Kumar and Mithun got a good bounce and carry from the Barabati wicket.
Mithun struck with the second delivery of his first over when opener Shashank Chandrakar gloved the ball to the keeper.
Chhattisgarh trudged to 38 for one in the PowerPlay as Rishabh Tiwari was joined by Harpreet Singh Bhatia in the middle. Bhatia collected two boundaries off Karun’s over before launching leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal over long-on for a six. Tiwary, too, showed the occasional sign of aggression with a swivelling pull stroke over deep mid-wicket standing out.
But just as the 60-run second-wicket partnership was gaining momentum, Shreyas had Tiwary caught at deep mid-wicket.
The dismissal put the lid on the scoring with Chhattisgarh reaching the 100-run mark in the 15th over but with wickets in hand, Bhatia switched gears bringing up his 50 off 44 balls.
