India 'A' trounce Bengal by eight wickets

Riding on disciplined performance in bowling and batting department, India 'A' today made Bengal bite the bust by eight wickets in the opening tie of NKP Salve Challenger Trophy tournament at SCA stadium.

Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha shared seven wickets between them restricting Bengal to 193 and then riding on an unbeaten 99 runs from opener Shikhar Dhawan and 63 runs from Ajinkya Rahane to crush Bengal by eight wickets and score a bonus point by achieving the target in just 37.2 overs.

Earlier, Bengal skipper Wriddhiman Saha won the toss and decided to bat first but his top order batting line-up collapsed against Sharma and Ojha and at one stage Bengal lost six wickets for 92 runs.

However skipper Wriddhiman did the needful with Arnab Nandy by adding 84 runs for the seventh wicket, but once the pair was bowled out rest of the Bengal batsmen failed to resist the India 'A' bowlers and were all out in just 193 runs off 41.1 overs.

Saha made 65 facing 72 balls with five fours and one six while Nandi made 43 facing 45 balls with three fours and two sixes.

For India 'A' Ishant Sharma took four wickets giving away only 29 runs while Pragyan Ojha finished with three for 40.

Chasing a target of 194 runs to win, India 'A' openers Shikhar Dhawan and Robin Uthappa gave flying start by adding 34 runs off just first five overs, however, aggressive Uthappa was dismissed after making 25 runs from 19 balls with five fours.

One down Ajinkya Rahane gave able support to Dhawan and the left, right combination did not give any chance to Bengal bowlers to come back in the match by adding 151 runs for the second wicket.

Rahane made 63 that came off 84 balls with five fours. Dhawan missed well-deserved century by just one run and remained unbeaten on 99 (112b, 12X4) along with S Badrinath (6).

India 'A' achieved the target in just 37.2 overs losing two wickets only and secure five points including a bonus point.

Brief Score:- Bengal 193 (Wriddhiman Saha 65, Arnab nandi 43, Ishant Sharma 4-29, Pragyan Ojha 3-40) lost to India 'A' 196 for 2 (Shikhar Dhawan not out 99, Ajinkya Rahane 63, Saurav Sarkar 1-27, J Basu 1-16).

Following is the score board of NKP Salve challenger trophy match played between Bengal and India 'A' at SCA stadium. Bengal :- J Basu C I. Sharma B P. Ojha 42 S Goswami Run Out 11 S Das C. Karthik B. OJHA 05 W Saha C. Badrinath B.Sharma 65 S Das C. Karthik B. Sharma 09 L Shukla C. Awana B. Pathan 00 D Das C. Rahane B. Sharma 01 A Nandi C. Badrinath B. Ojha 43 S Sarkar C. Karthik B. Sharma 00 V P Singh C. Karthik B. Mithun 01 I Saxena Not Out 04 Extras (LB-7, W-5) 12 Total all out off 41.1 overs 193 Fall of wickets :- 1-32,2-63,3-71,4-88,5-89,6-92,7-176,8-181,9-193. Bowling:- Ishant Sharma 9-1-29-4, Abhimanyu Mithun 10-0-47-1, Parvindar Awana 6-0-29-0, Pragyan Ojha 9.1-0-40-3, Yusuf Pathan 5-0-35-1, Subramaniam Badrinath 2-0-6-0. India "A" Shikhar Dhawan Not Out 99 Robin Uthappa C. Basu B. Sarkar 25 Ajinkya Rahane C & B Basu 63 S. Badrinath Not Out 06 Extras )W-3) 03 Total for 2 wickets in 37.2 overs 196 Fall of Wikets:- 1-34,2-185. Bowling:- Saurav Sarkar 6-1-27-1, V P Singh 8-0-46-0, L Shukla 7-0-42-0, A Nandi 8-0-33-0, I Saxena 6-0-32-0, J Basu 2.2-0-16-1.