Bengal beats Assam; Services, Tripura post wins

Chennai: Bengal defeated Assam by five wickets on Friday for its third win from four games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Elite Group 'C' league here.

Asked to bat first, Assam lost opener Parviz Aziz (1) in the second over, when he was trapped leg-before wicket by Kanishk Seth. There were no significant partnerships with only the 38-run stand between Riyan Parag (32) and Abhishek Thakuri (27) being the highest as the team were skittled out for 150.

Spinner Pradipta Pramanik with 4 for 27 from his 10 overs was the most successful bowler for Bengal. The latter reached the target in 25.4 overs, but not before losing five wickets. Opener Vivek Singh led the way with an aggressive 51 (51 balls, 4X4, 4X6). Captain Manoj Tiwari fell after hitting a six and a four in his knock of 12.

In another match, Services continued its good run, thrashing a strong Gujarat by nine wickets, riding on a superb ton by opener Ravi Chauhan.

Services, which opted to field after winning the toss, restricted Parthiv Patel-led Gujarat to 219 for 7 in 50 overs. Rujul Bhatt made the top score of 56 not out.

In reply, Services opener Nakul Verma (46) and Chauhan (106 not out) got off to a quick start and brought up the fifty in the seventh over and the 100 in the 17th.

After Verma was dismissed at 137 by Piyush Chawla, Chauhan and Rahul Singh Gahlaut (55 not out) saw the team home in style, in the 39th over.

It was the fourth win from five games for Services, the surprise packet of Group 'C' so far.

In the third match of the day, Tripura got the better of bottom-placed Rajasthan by 48 runs.

Batting first, Tripura rode on Bravish's 107 to make 242 for 7 and dismissed its rival for 194 in 45.1 overs.

Brief scores: Tripura 242 for 7 in 50 overs (Bravish 107, BB Ghosh 76, R D Chahar 3 for 44) beat Rajasthan 194 all out in 45.1 overs (Robin Bist 42, Rajib H Saha 3 for 50).

Points: Tripura: 4, Rajasthan: 0.