Host Bengal beat Odisha by nine runs in the last-round league match to emerge East Zone champions of the Syde Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 Cricket Tournament at Eden Gardens in Kolkata today. Jharkhand finished second in the zone, annihilating Assam by eight wickets in another match of the day at Jadavpurpur University ground.
Chasing a modest target of 122, Odisha chocked at the death to finish at 112 for nine. Bengal finished at the top of the zonal table with full 16 points, winning all of their four league matches. Jharkhand, Assam and Odisha tied for the second position with two wins and eight points apiece.
However, Jharkhand pipped the other two contenders by virtue of better net run-rate. Both Bengal and Jharkhand qualified for the inter-zonal super league tournament, scheduled to be held at Mumbai and Rajkot from April 8. Assam and Odisha finished third and fourth respectively in East Zone.
SCOREBOARD
BENGAL: A Das b B Mohanty 3, Vivek Singh ct Patel b J Behera 38, W Saha ct B Mohanty b L Samal 7, M Tiwary b J Behera 22, Pankaj Shaw c Sarangi b Samantaray 3, A Nandi (not out) 29, S Sanyal (run out) 4, S Lahiri b Samantaray 0, A Gani (not out) 9; Extras (b-4, lb-1, w-1) 6
Total (7 wkts; 20 overs) 121
Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-27, 3-55, 4-67, 5-82, 6-98, 7-98
Bowling: Deepak Behera 3-0-23-0, Basant Mohanty 4-0-21-1, Lagnajit Samal 2-0-18-1, Biplab Samantaray 4-0-18-2, Jayant Behera 4-0-23-2, Paresh Patel 3-0-13-0.
ODISHA: Paresh Patel b Sanyal 17, Natraj Behera c Saha b Chakraborty 2, Anurag Sarangi c&b Lahiri 7, Govind Poddar c Tiwary b Gani 39, Biplab Samantaray c Tiwary b Gani 4, Aravinda Singh c sub b Nandi 10, Haladhar Das c A Das b Nandi 2, Deepak Behera (not out) 8, Lagnajit Samal b Chakraborty 7, Basant Mohanty b Sanyal 7, Jayant Behera (not out) 0; Extras (b-1, lb-2, w-6) 9
Total (9 wkts; 20 overs) 112
Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-22, 3-51, 4-70, 5-81, 6-89, 7-89, 8-98, 9-111
Bowling: Ashok Dinda 2-0-16-0, P Chakraborty 4-0-26-2, S Sanyal 4-0-14-2, S Lahiri 4-0-20-1, A Gani 4-0-26-2, A Nandi 2-0-7-2.