Sib Sankar, Riyan guide their team to third victory in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Cricket championship

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Tournament

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: Assam continued their good form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Cricket championship and defeated Bengal by 26 runs in Cuttack today. Chasing 163 runs to win Bengal managed to score 136-9 in their 20 overs.

Although Bengal made good start in the early stage of the game but it was a brilliant partnership between Sib Sankar Roy and Riyan Parag which put Assam in the driver’s seat. Invited to bat, Assam were once 10-2. It was Sarupam Purkaystha who today opened the innings with Pallav Das but the decision didn’t work as Sarupam back into the pavilion on the sixth balls of the innings without opening his account. Pallav (10) followed him eight balls later and it looked like Assam were heading for a big trouble.

But Sib Sankar and Riyan played two superb knocks and bail out Assam from the trouble. The duo on the third wickets added 137 runs in just 95 balls. Both the batsmen were in punishing mood today and it helped Assam to score runs in a very quick pace. Sib Sankar, the highest scorer in the innings, took 53 balls to score 82 runs with the help of 12 boundaries and one six. Riyan Parag faced 47 balls to score 52 runs and there were five boundaries and one six in his innings. Among the bowlers of Bengal Bindra, 4-17, came out with best figure.

Later Bengal too failed to make good start and were quickly reduced to 4-38 and the side didn’t able to recover from that stage. Except opener Shrrevats Goswami (43) no other batsmen of Bengal were able to contribute good scores on the board. Abu Nechim Ahmed and Mukhtar Hussain picked up two wickets each giving away 25 and 32 runs respectively.

Brief Score: Assam 162/5 in 20 overs (Sibsankar Roy 83, Riyan Parag 52; Ashok Dinda 4/17) beat Bengal 136/9; 20 overs (Shreevats Goswami 43; Abu Nechim 2/25) by 26 runs.

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