Assam, Orissa win in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Assam defeated Bengal by 18 runs while Orissa beat Tripura by 34 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (East Zone) here today.
Sent into bat, Assam registered a competitive 189 for six in the stipulated overs. Sibsankar Roy was the top-scorer with 34-ball 48 and hit eight boundaries at the Barabati Stadium.
Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad (35), Pallavkumar Das (25), Swarupam Purkayastha (24) and Amit Sinha (24) were the other batsmen to have contributed with the bat.
Aamir Gani picked up two for 34 in a three-over spell for Bengal.
In reply, Bengal were restricted to 171 for nine in 20 overs. Debabrata Das smashed a brilliant 78 off 40 balls, but he lacked support from the other end.

Shreevats Goswami, Manoj Tiwary and Laxmiratan Shukla got starts but could not convert them into substantial scores.

For Assam, Pritam Das, Abu Nechim Ahmed picked up two wickets each as the team collected four points from the win.
Batting first, Orissa scored 151 for eight and then restricted Tripura to 117 for eight.
Arabind Singh top-scored for the hosts with a 32-ball 49, hitting two fours and three sixes. Govinda Podder made 31 while Roshan Kumar Rao contributed 24.
Sanjay Majumder was the best bowler for Tripura, returning figures of 3/10 in 3 overs, while Tushar Saha 2/26.
For Tripura, Rakesh Solanki top-scored with a 58-ball 68, but the rest of the batting failed miserably.

Jayanta Behera was the most successful bowler from Orissa with figures of 3/19 in 4 overs. Deepak Behera and ALok Mangaraj picked up two wickets apiece.