Another unbeaten half-century by Debabrata Das proved in vain as defending champions Bengal suffered back-to-back defeats, going down to Jharkhand by three wickets in a league match of the East Zone Inter-State T20 Tournament at Barabati Stadium here today.
Put into bat, Bengal were restricted to 136 for eight. Debabrata Das, who had hit an unbeaten 78 in Bengal`s opening match against Assam two days ago, once again top scored for his side with an unbeaten 61 (33b, 7x4, 3x6).
In reply, Jharkhand overhauled the target with two balls to spare. Openers Ishan Kissan and Saurabh Tiwary gave them a flying start, putting on 63 runs in 7.3 overs. Bengal, of course, bounced back into the match by reducing the opposition to 76 for five.
However, a 29-ball unbeaten 42 by Kaushal Singh helped Jharkhand clinch their second win in as many matches. On the other hand, the defeat ended Bengal`s chances to qualify for the super league stage of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Tournament. Earlier, they had lost to Assam by 18 runs.
TRIPURA UPSET ASSAM: Minnow Tripura rode on a run-a-ball 68 (6x4, 2x6) by Yogesh Takawale to beat fancied Assam by six wickets in another match of the day. Chasing 173 for victory, Tripura romped home with five balls to spare. This was the first win in three matches for Tripura and second defeat in three games for Assam.
BRIEF SCORES:
Assam 172/8 in 20 overs (Sibsankar Roy 46, Pallav Kumar Das 36, Pritam Debnath 23; Tushar Saha 3/23, Ajoy Sarkar 2/29) lost to Tripura 175/4 in 19.1 overs (Yogesh Takawale 68 n.o, Sanjoy Majumder 39, Udiyan Bose 30; Pritam Das 2/43) by 6 wkts.
Bengal 136/8 in 20 overs (Debabrata Das 61 n.o, Manoj Tiwary 28; Vikash Kumar 2/19, Shahbaz Nadeem 2/30) lost to Jharkhand 139/7 in 19.4 overs (Kushal Singh 42 n.o, Ishan Kissan 30, Saurabh Tiwary 29; Laxmi Ratan Shukla 3/15, Veer Pratap Singh 2/19) by 3 wkts.
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PHOTO: Tripura batsman Yogesh Takawale in Cuttack on March 27, 2015.