Assam earned a crucial bonus point after humbling Andhra Pradesh by 10 wickets in the Group C Ranji Trophy cricket match, here on Sunday. Chasing a paltry 24 for a win on the fourth and final day's play at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, the Dheeraj Jadhav-led Assam cantered to a win in 12.1 overs with more than a session to spare.
Starting the day on 116 for six, the Mohammad Kaif-led Andhra were bundled out for 198 with Assam left-arm spinner Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad (5-27) bagging his third five-wicket haul in first-class matches. But the star for Assam was Swarupam Parkayastha, who not only bagged six wickets in both the innings, but also hit an unbeaten 108 in his side's first innings to earn the man-of-the-match award. Parkayastha also stitched a crucial 134-run seventh-wicket partnership with Syed Mohammad (66) to help Assam post 312 in response to Andhra's first-innings core of 137.
Bengal stare at relegation zone
Kolkata: Mahesh Rawat once again proved to be Bengal's nemesis as his quick fire 55 ensured three important points for the Railways even as the hosts got themselves into the relegation zone after the seventh round group league encounter of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament. After setting a victory target of 265 runs in 63 overs, Bengal bowlers did put the railway men in a spot reducing them to 75 for five before Rawat along with India international Karn Sharma (48) added 97 runs in just over 20 overs to put paid to Bengal's hopes of an outright win.
In the end, Railways finished their second innings at 198 for eight and the three points took their tally to 16 points and they would be eyeing a big outright possibly with bonus points in their last game against Uttar Pradesh at home. Bengal are now languishing at eighth position in the nine-team pool with 12 points and an away match to go against Madhya Pradesh at Indore from February 6.
With Jammu and Kashmir having finished their grpoup league engagements with 12 points and UP at the bottom with nine points, all Bengal need is a point and 13 from eight games would be good enough to beat the drop. In the morning, Bengal batted for another 30 overs to declare their second innings at 298 for eight in 97.4 overs.
Pint-sized wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami remained unbeaten on 77 with seven boundaries off 151 balls. Chasing 265, openers Amit Paunikar (5) and Nitin Bhille (3) were dismissed cheaply by laxmi Ratan Shukla and Ashok Dinda respectively.