Abishek Porel, Mukesh Kumar and Mohammed Shami were the stars of the show as Bengal handed a 6-wicket defeat to Chandigarh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Bengal went on to chase down a mammoth target in order to return to winning ways in the tournament and now they have two wins in their first three games. On the other hand, Chandigarh lost their third match in a row.
After being invited to bat first, Chandigarh had a decent start thanks to openers Manan Vohra and Arjun Azad. The latter looked to be in better touch out of the two, but was dismissed by Shami in the seventh over for 31 runs. Following the wicket, Vohra decided to take matters into his own hands and though he didn't get a lot of support from the other end, he continued to maintain a brilliant strike-rate.
Vohra scores remarkable ton
Vohra formed robust stands with both Arslan Khan and Tushar Joshi befoire him alongside Sanyam Saini took Chandigarh's total comfortably over the 200-run mark. Both of them smashed opposing bowlers all around the park and Vohra eventually went on to score a well-deserved hundred. The partnership of 82 was eventually broken by Shahbaz Ahmed, who got rid of Vohra for 122.
The Bengal bowling attack dragged their team back into the game as both Shami and Mukesh picked up Chandigarh's remaining six wickets between them in the space of less than nine overs. Mukesh recorded sensational figures of 5/59 while Shami finished with figures of 3/69 as the batting side got bowled out for 319 runs in 48.2 overs.
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In reply, openers Abishek Porel and Abhimanyu Easwaran ensured that Bengal got off to a strong start. The duo played several fine shots and looked to be set on the crease. However, Easwaran failed to score big and was dismissed by Nishunk Birla for 25 runs as the partnership got broken for 88. Next batter Sudip Kumar Gharami was also sent back cheaply for 17 as Bengal went down to 127/2,
However, Porel maintained a superb strike-rate from the other end and kept on batting in superb fashion. He eventually went on to score a fabulous century as Bengal started cruising towards the target. However, the left-hand batter wasn't able to take his innings a lot further from there and was dismissed by Taranpreet Singh for 106 runs.
Batters eventually lead Bengal to victory
But, a strong partnership between Anustup Majumdar and Shahbaz Ahmed completely turned the game in Bengal's favour once again. Both the batters played sensibly and took the side incredibly close to the target before Majumdar's valiant knock of 63 was brought to an end by Rohit Dhanda, leaving them on 278/4. However, Shahbaz's unbeaten 76 and Sumanta Gupta's cameo of 22 was enough for Bengal to reach the 320-run target with 14 deliveries left to spare. The 6-wicket win saw saw Bengal reach the fifth place in Group B with eight points while Chandigarh remained at the bottom with three straight defeats.